


Officer of the Dead

by temo_gemo



Category: The Dead Don't Die (2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Apocalypse, Awkward Flirting, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Mutual Pining, Mutually Unrequited, Romantic Fluff, Slow Burn, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:26:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26356438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/temo_gemo/pseuds/temo_gemo
Summary: As the world begins to end, you think you'll only have to worry about keeping yourself alive but you rescue an Officer from Centerville who changes everything.
Relationships: Officer Ronnie Peterson/Reader, Officer Ronnie Peterson/You, Ronald Peterson (The Dead Don't Die)/Reader, Ronnie Peterson/Reader, Ronnie Peterson/You
Comments: 30
Kudos: 31





	1. Chapter One

Your heart is beating fast as you rush through the forest with a small group of people you had met while escaping the dead. You use the trees and the cover of darkness as shelter from the horde of zombies you see in the cemetery up ahead. Pausing to catch your breath, you make out two figures trying to fight the horde off single-handedly, you watch as they take down zombie after zombie, but you know they are easily outnumbered. The rest of the group pause, joining you in watching the figures fight for their lives. You sense the unspoken thoughts of the group, considering whether to step in and help, but no one speaks. You whisper as not to draw any attention to your group from the lingering zombies. 

“Are we going to help them?” you ask, wondering if the group’s moral compass has already begun to falter. “We can’t leave them, There’s enough of us,” you whisper again, hoping the group would agree. Having only met the group earlier that evening you weren’t sure how they would react to a situation like this. Hell, you barely knew their names. You were lucky to stumble upon the group whilst running from the dead - they helped take down the zombies that were chasing you. Thankful for their rescue, you stayed with them for safety, knowing you have a better chance at survival if you stick with a group. 

A man, slightly taller than yourself with an intimidating bulky frame steps closer to you. You try to study his face, but with the cover of darkness and his baseball cap, all you can make out is some stubble along his jaw. “It’s too risky” the man whispers back, his voice gritty and rough; the type of voice you would expect someone to have after a lifetime of chain-smoking and heavy drinking. “We need to prioritize ourselves” he continues, joining you in looking towards the two figures. As far as you can tell this man has assigned himself the role of the group’s leader.

You look at him with a defeated expression, knowing that what he says makes sense but being uncomfortable knowing you are leaving the two figures to die. You gulp, trying to bury the overwhelming feeling of guilt away, this doesn’t sit right with you. You watch as he starts to move away from you, motioning the group to continue moving forward. You turn to take one last glance at the two figures who are slowly losing the battle as the zombies close in on them. As you take your last glance, you notice the moonlight hit one of the two figures, revealing a shine off what looks like a sheriff's badge resting along the top of their left-hand breast pocket.

“They’re cops!” you exclaim, slightly louder than you expected. “They’ll have resources; guns, ammo,” you say quickly and with urgency, now with an increased desire to help them, knowing they could be useful in trying to survive this apocalypse. The man in the baseball cap comes back towards you, taking a longer strained look at the two officers before looking towards you and nodding with a sigh.

Acknowledging the nod, you break from the shelter of the forest and begin attacking the lingering zombies. Your weapon is a simple baseball bat, quiet but solid enough to get the job done. Gunshots from the others in the group catch the horde’s attention, causing them to break away from the officers and begin heading in the direction of your group. The two officers, sensing the rescue, begin slaughtering the zombies still nearing in on them as your group attacks the zombies breaking away. With a team effort, each zombie insight takes a hit to the head and collapses to the ground.

Looking around to check that the horde of zombies has been eliminated, you walk towards the two men.

“Are you guys okay? you ask. The taller, younger man of the two answers first.

“Yeah, that was close,” he answers, still slightly breathless from his near-death experience. He runs a large hand through the black hair that sits in a mess on top of his head before straightening his glasses. Sweat glistens on his brow, and his uniform and forearms are smothered in the blood that does not appear to be his own. You nod at him and look towards the other officer, who is much older than the first. The moonlight reflects off his sweat-soaked head, highlighting stray grey hairs. His younger friend notices that he has not answered your question, and looks towards him. 

“Chief?” 

The older man stands and gasps, looking down, unable to hide the chunk of flesh missing from his forearm. His friend, moving his messy black hair out of his eyes, takes a sharp breath, noticing the missing flesh and begins to panic 

“Oh shit,” he responds as he begins to remove his black leather belt to help slow the blood loss. His friend lifts his other arm, stopping him in motion.

There’s no point, Ronnie. It’s too late” he says, his breaths becoming strained

“But…” Ronnie says with a pause, searching his thoughts for a solution to the problem. 

“You said it yourself, this wasn’t going to end well,” his friend responds, leaning on a gravestone for balance. Ronnie looks speechless, not expecting his own words to be used against him. 

You and your group stand with the two officers, taking in the conversation between them. The wounded man looks towards your group. 

“Once bitten it's too late, it's only a matter of time until you turn,” your group leader says with no emotion to the police chief. He nods, accepting his fate. Grasping his shotgun, he lifts it and hands it to his partner, along with a cartridge of ammunition.

“I’d rather not turn into one of them,” he says, gesturing towards the dead whilst looking to Ronnie to take his life. 

“Oh, umm, I…” Ronnie responds, unable to piece together a coherent sentence. You step forward, sensing his apprehension, and place a hand on the shotgun 

“We can…”, you say quietly, gesturing to yourself and the group leader. Ronnie shakes his head as he places his machete into a holster attached to his belt. He takes the shotgun from his chief’s hands and begins loading it with the ammunition. It clicks as he finishes loading it. He begins lifting the gun, positioning the butt of it against his shoulder, aiming for his chief’s head. His friend stands still against the gravestone he is using for balance, now bracing himself for the inevitable. He gives a nod towards Ronnie before closing his eyes. Ronnie is silent as his finger rests on the trigger, taking a deep breath before he gently pulls the trigger, his body jerking backward from the force of the shot. The echo of the gunshot sounds for miles as he watches his chief, his friend, fall to the ground, dead. Ronnie is silent as your group watches him. He turns to look at you. 

“Right, we need to get out of here,” your group leader says, gesturing towards the police car parked along the fence. 

“My car is on the other side of the cemetery,” Ronnie states, “My friend parked it there before being … taken away by aliens … or something …” he mutters quietly. You glance at him, with a look of confusion on your face, wondering if you heard him correctly. 

“Ok, you go with him,” your group leader suggests, pointing at you, breaking your train of thought, “And we’ll take the cop car.”

He and the other four members of the group start heading towards the police car.

“Where are we heading?” you shout to him. He looks back at you and gestures with a shrug that he doesn’t know. Ronnie looks at you, “I know a place,’ he says. You nod in acknowledgment and shout back to your group leader to follow Ronnie’s car. 

As you follow him, you begin to realize he's leading you to a small red convertible smart car. You look at him, confused. “That's your car?” you ask. He looks back at you and nods ‘yes’, “But it's so small, and you’re…” You glance him up and down and finish your sentence “So big.”.

He blinks, still looking at you. “It’s very economical, it gets forty MPG”’ he states, proudly. 

“I...I don’t think it matters anymore” you state, reaching the car.

You open the passenger door and climb in; Ronnie climbs into the driver's seat and starts fumbling around the car looking for something. Ronnie leans over towards you and opens the glove box, unphased as he brushes his hand against your thigh. You blush, looking away from him. He continues searching for something, completely unaware of what has just happened. “Ah!” he exclaims, pulling a small box towards him. He opens it up and reveals a car key. 

“You keep a spare key in your car?” you ask, bewildered that anyone would do that. 

“Yes,” he says, putting the keys into the ignition. Starting the engine, he begins driving off. You look towards the wing mirror and watch the police car follow you in suit.

As Ronnie drives through the streets of Centerville, you watch out of your window at all the lost souls wandering the streets. You had been traveling with friends but became separated when the dead started to rise; you wonder if they’re okay. 

You look towards Ronnie and he seems unphased by everything that has happened, only focused on driving along the dark streets, lit only by the car’s headlights. “I'm sorry about your friend,” you say, breaking the silence. 

“Oh,” he says, “It’s okay. I would have been dead too if it wasn’t for you and your friends.”. He keeps his eyes on the road, swerving gently to drive around the dead wandering the streets. “Thank you,” he mutters, eyes breaking from the road slightly to glance at you. You smile at him, acknowledging his gratitude.

“So where are we headed?” you ask, curious if it would be safe. 

“Oh, it’s an unused factory outside of town, it should be safe. It's in a quiet spot, fencing around it, that sorta thing,” he answers, still focusing on driving around the walking dead. You nod and sit back in your seat, trusting his suggestion. His calm demeanor helps calm your mind. He makes things feel less scary, makes you feel secure. You close your eyes briefly, feeling safe in his presence.

Your eyes flicker open as you feel the car come to a stop. You look out of the car's windshield, and a large grey building is before you. Just as Ronnie had described, it looked secluded with a large fence surrounding the building, and not a zombie in sight. “How do we get in?” you ask, noticing that the car has come to a stop outside the locked fence. Ronnie looks towards you with a flash of a smile on his lips.

“I’m an officer,”. He chuckles as he starts to move from his seat, out of the car toward the fence. You watch him reach into one of the pockets on his belt and pull out a chain; it glistens in the moonlit sky and you realize it is a set of keys. The fence unlocks and Ronnie pushes the fence open before heading back to the car. He sits back down in the driver's seat, making sure to buckle up despite only driving the few short feet forward towards the empty building. The police car follows behind you, pulling up beside your passenger door. Ronnie exits the car and heads back toward the gate, closing it.

The group you’ve found yourself with begin exiting the police car, and as they do you realize that you don’t know anyone's name. 

“Thank you for rescuing me earlier, I’m y/n,” you say, breaking the ice. The group leader begins to introduce the group.

“I’m Steve, and this here is my wife Alice.'' She looks around the same age as him, possibly early 50s, hair a mousy brown tinted with grey. She is slim, with a timid frame. “And this here is our daughter, Katie,” he says, gesturing for her to come over and introduce herself. She looks to be early 20s and visibly shaken from the events of the evening, her fingers fidgeting with a stray thread from the cuff of her light pullover. 

Ronnie returns to the group before the remaining members can introduce themselves. “So what's the plan, Officer?” Steve asks, with an almost sarcastic tone. Ronnie shoots a glare at him, before answering.

“Well,” he replies as he places his hands on his hips. He lifts his left arm and points at the building before them. “We can take shelter here tonight.”

“Is it safe?” Katie pipes up, looking at Ronnie, looking extremely nervous and exhausted. Her mother places a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring rub. Ronnie, sensing her shaken disposition, gives her a reassuring nod.

“The dead only seem to gravitate to the things they liked when they were alive, so I don’t think any of them will be gravitating to this old factory,” he replies with a reassuring smile to the girl as he begins walking towards the building. 

The group follows behind him, and he takes out the set of keys from his pocket as he reaches the factory doors. He grabs the lock, unlocking it with ease, pulling at the chains that hold the doors closed shut. Once clear he pulls on the door and opens it, revealing vast darkness ahead. He places the keys back into one of the pockets on his belt and removes a torch from the other side, along with his service pistol. Holding the pistol in his right hand with his left resting the torch atop his wrist just in case he was to come across any more zombies. He makes his way inside, the group still following close behind. 

“Should we find the lights?” Steve suggests, walking faster to try and keep up with Ronnie’s strides. 

“I... wouldn’t do that…” Ronnie replies, not looking at him, keeping his focus on the area he can see ahead of him.

“Well, how are we going to see what’s in here?” Steve says, questioning Ronnie’s choice, “You may be a cop, but that doesn’t mean you get to call the shots.”. Steve’s choice of words causes Ronnie to pause in his tracks. He turns to Steve, pointing the pistol and shining the torch in his face. Steve jumps back slightly, covering his eyes with the palm of his hand “Don’t point that at me!” he says, aggravated. Ronnie lowers the pistol and torch slightly. 

“The point is to go unnoticed and draw no attention to ourselves,” Ronnie replies, looking astonished that he has to explain himself. 

“And then what?” Steve questions him further. 

Listening intently to the conversation between the two men, you can tell Ronnie has no idea what comes next, none of you do. You step in to help assist Ronnie, sensing him growing irritated by Steve’s incessant questions. 

“We should just try and rest tonight, figure things out in the morning,” you reply, answering Steve’s question. Ronnie turns to look at the rest of the group behind him, this time keeping his torch and pistol pointed down. “The building seems clear, find somewhere to rest but stay close by,'' Everyone nods and separates into two smaller groups. Steve, Alice, and Katie head to one corner of the factory floor, Steve muttering something under his breath as he walks away from you and Ronnie. The other two members of the group pick a spot near Steve’s family but with a distance between them. 

With the groups now sat down it leaves you and Ronnie standing alone in the factory. “Are you not with any of them?” Ronnie questions, gesturing towards the two groups.

“No,” you reply, “was traveling with friends when we became separated, I found this group and figured it would be safer to stay with them.'' He nods, “makes sense” he replies. You sit down on the dark and dusty floor, leaning your head back on a piece of machinery, your knees pulled up to your chest. You’re exhausted from the day you've had, still unsure if this is just some never-ending nightmare. 

As you sit quietly on the floor, you sense Ronnie’s unease above you, slowly realizing that you've both been left separated from those you know, that you’re both alone in a group of strangers. 

“I’ll keep watch,” Ronnie suggests, breaking your thoughts. You lift your head to look up at him.

“We’ll share it, you need rest too,” you say, motioning for him to sit with you.

He sits beside you and agrees to wake you for the second half of the watch. You lean your head back onto the piece of machinery behind you but this time closing your eyes, drifting off quickly with Ronnie beside you, his presence still making you feel safe and secure.


	2. Chapter Two

A gentle nudging slowly brings you out of your slumber, and you need a moment to fully wake as your senses start coming back to you. You feel a comforting warmth on the left side of your face which causes your eyes to flutter open. You notice Ronnie’s long legs stretched out on the floor; he’s still sitting beside you, making you realize that the warmth on the side of your face is coming from him. You panic with embarrassment as you quickly remove your head from his shoulder.

“Gosh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to...” you say quickly, brushing stray strands of hair out of your face. Ronnie chuckles slightly before reassuring you.

“No, it's okay, I didn’t want to wake you.” 

You smile at him briefly as thoughts of the dead creep into your mind, your smile vanishing. “Has anything happened?” you ask, a sense of worry overcoming you.

“Nothing,” Ronnie responds, “We’re safe.” A sense of relief floods through you; you hope your watch will be just as uneventful 

“Right, you’d better get some rest,” you say with a closed-lipped smile. Ronnie nods and hands you his torch, now resting his head back on the machinery to get some rest.

You rise to your feet, knowing that if you stay sitting beside Ronnie that you’d inevitably drift back to sleep. You shine the torch towards the others to check on them and they all appear to be sleeping. With the acknowledgment that the group is safe, you start moving through the factory. You set out to find access to the building's roof so you can have a clear view of any potential attacks.

***********

Standing on the roof, you watch out into the distance as dawn breaks through the trees surrounding the building. Everything seems peaceful, you can’t hear a sound, not even the birds’ early morning chirping. You take it in with a deep exhalation, unsure if today would be your last. Your thoughts are interrupted as you hear the door to the roof open. Turning your head you see one of the girls you didn’t catch the name of last night. She’s tall with natural blonde hair and blue eyes, and she walks with a sense of confidence. 

“Morning...” you say. 

“...Lucy,” the girl responds, finishing your sentence, offering out her hand. You mirror her and shake hands. 

“Hi, I’m y/n, did you sleep well?” you ask, trying to make conversation. 

“Yes, which is surprising considering the circumstances.” You nod in agreement, not sure what else to say; small talk had never been your forte. 

“Well, I guess we better wake the others and make a plan for today,” you reply, gesturing for Lucy to lead the way. 

As you reach the small area of the factory the group had claimed the night before, you notice most of the group are awake. Steve, Alice, and Katie are sat huddled in a circle talking quietly amongst themselves. “I better go wake my sister up,” Lucy says, leaving your side. You make your way towards the spot you had spent the night in, cringing momentarily remembering that you had fallen asleep on Ronnie. As you reach the spot you see Ronnie is still fast asleep. You watch him for a moment. If the world wasn’t coming to an end, he’d be the type of guy you’d like. He was his unique version of tall, dark, and handsome, and if his actions were anything to go on so far he seemed to be a gentleman too. Polite, considerate, calming, you couldn’t fault him. Suddenly, as if he can read your mind, his eyes flicker open. You quickly look away from him, hoping he didn’t catch you watching him sleep. 

“Morning,” a hoarse voice says. You turn to look back at him. 

“Morning,” you say with a smile. Ronnie lifts himself to his feet. You had forgotten just how tall he is. The light of day now highlights the features you couldn’t make out in the dark, like his piercing brown eyes. As he stands beside you, looking towards the rest of the group, you find yourself feeling nervous in his presence. Trying to distract yourself from the feeling you leave his side and start walking towards the rest of the group. 

You notice Lucy and her sister and how similar they look. “Are you twins?” you ask.

“Yeah, identical,” Lucy responds, “This is Sarah.” Sarah offers up a small wave as Ronnie joins your side, butting into the conversation. 

“Oh wow, do you guys have, like… superpowers?” Ronnie asks quickly as if he’s unable to contain himself. You look up at him with a puzzled expression. 

“No…” Lucy replies, also looking at Ronnie puzzled. 

“Oh, well not like superhero powers, but, um, telepathic abilities..?” Ronnie says, gesturing with his hands. 

“No, Ronnie, why would you even think that?” Lucy says, still confused by his questions. 

“Oh ... just, I see it a lot in movies and I wondered if it was an actual thing,” he says, looking slightly disappointed. You chuckle slightly. 

“Honestly Ronnie…” Your sentence is cut short when Steve and his family approach your group. 

“So what’s the plan? We need food, water, weapons, medicines,” Steve says, ensuring to articulate his list by using his fingers to count the number of items. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ronnie responds, “To get those things we need to go back to Centerville.” A small squeak of worry comes from Katie, who is hovering nervously just behind Steve, chewing her thumbnail, clearly worried. 

“I... I don’t want to go back, it's not safe,” she says, flustered with worry. 

“It’s okay, we don’t all need to go, some of us need to stay here and protect this place,” Ronnie says reassuringly. 

“I’ll go,” you say, intrigued by what you’d see in the daylight. Ronnie nods at your offer.

“Yeah, and me,” Steve says. The rest of the group remain quiet. “Okay, just us three? Let's get ready to go.” 

As Steve hangs back to say goodbye to his family, you and Ronnie head outside towards the cars. “Cop car?” you ask, looking at Ronnie. He nods, opening the trunk. You stand waiting for Steve to join you as Ronnie rummages through the trunk. He lifts his head. 

“Here, take this,” Ronnie says, handing you a pistol. You take it from him 

“I… I’ve never fired a gun before,” you say, looking at the pistol. 

“Oh, well, just take this off,” he says pointing to a catch on the side “And then pull the trigger. Hopefully, you won’t need to use it,” he finishes, offering you half a smile. 

Steve joins the two of you “Ready?” he asks. 

“Yup,” Ronnie replies, climbing into the driver's seat. You open the passenger door and Steve climbs into the back.

“The gate?” you question before climbing in. Ronnie hands you the key from his belt and you walk over to the gate, opening it and allowing Ronnie to drive through before locking it again. Climbing into the car you hand the key back to Ronnie. 

***********

The car is silent as Ronnie drives along the deserted country roads. You keep your eyes peeled, looking for any movement. After twenty minutes, Ronnie pulls the car over, turning the engine off. “We should walk from here, the sound of the car could draw a horde,” he says, “The same with guns, only shoot if necessary”. You clutch at your baseball bat, feeling more nervous about what lays ahead. You sense Steve feeling the same apprehension as he sits quietly and nods in agreement with Ronnie’s suggestions, surprisingly unargumentative today. Following Ronnie’s lead, you climb out of the car. The air is crisp, dry, and cool, the start of autumn beginning to show as you witness the first fallen leaves laying on the ground beside the parked car. 

Clustered together, Ronnie pulls out a map from his back pocket and places it on the hood of the car. You listen intently as he begins pointing at the map. 

“Main objectives are food, water, weapons, medicine, and transport. We head for the grocery store first, gather supplies, then find a car to transport the goods back to the factory. Head in quietly and get out quickly, make sense?” he asks, looking towards you and Steve. You both nod in unison. Ronnie folds up the map, placing it back in his pocket and gripping his machete as he starts heading towards Centerville.

As you begin approaching the main drag of Centerville, the once clean streets are littered with debris, shop windows are smashed, doors of buildings are left open. Decapitated bodies lay in the street, the image of it all you can only describe as scenes from a horror movie. Your heightened senses are triggered each time the breeze causes the litter to move, causing you to jump and turn with your baseball bat held tightly in front of you; each time you are met with nothing. Despite all of the chaos before you, you haven’t seen a single zombie, and this only makes you feel more nervous. As you turn the corner you notice Ronnie come to a slow halt, gesturing towards a building with a pointed finger. You look in the direction of his pointing and realize you’ve made it to the small grocery store. 

You watch as Steve approaches a nearby pickup truck. Gently opening the driver's door he reaches inside before giving you and Ronnie a thumbs up. You assume this is a good sign that the truck has a set of keys. With your escape vehicle secured, you all head towards the grocery store. As you enter you notice the shelves are still mostly full as if the entire town met its untimely demise only yesterday. Ronnie speaks quietly.

“Steve, you get the food, y/n, you get the medicine and I’ll get the water. Take as much as you can carry and place it in the pickup. We’ll do a few runs, seeing as it's quiet, and then we can get out of here,”. You nod and head towards the medicine aisle. Picking up a basket you begin emptying the shelves of whatever is available, and once the basket is full you head towards the pickup. Steve is already outside dropping off his selection of food; you notice the pick up already has a good selection of food and water brought back by Steve and Ronnie before you. You begin to feel relief come over you as you realize that you’ve almost finished getting supplies and haven’t encountered a single zombie. 

Suddenly, you hear a panicked shout from Steve. You turn in his direction to see what’s going on, when you see a wave of zombies approaching, there must be at least twenty, you think maybe more and you realize you’ll be quickly outnumbered if you don’t act fast. You prepare your baseball bat, gripping the handle tight, as adrenaline surges through your body, you feel your heart racing as you take down the few zombies that are at the front of the horde with a forceful blow to the head. Steve joins you, helping you take down the zombies closing in. Between the two of you you’ve taken down the first row, but there are still countless others behind them. You begin to panic.

“We need to get Ronnie!” you shout, looking at Steve. 

“It’s too late for him,” Steve says, leaving your side and opening the pickup driver’s side door, climbing in. “C’mon, let's go!” he shouts as he turns the engine on. You look around and see that the entrance to the grocery store is starting to become blocked, you know if you make a run for it now that maybe it's not too late, maybe he does still stand a chance, and maybe you could get to him in time. You don't know why you do it, but suddenly you find yourself running back towards the store, determined to get him out. As you run, you hear the pickup drive off at high speed, leaving you stranded. Why are you doing this you wonder? Is it because Ronnie’s shown you kindness, something you're not used to, and you're not prepared to lose that just yet? Is it because of how safe you felt sleeping next to him? Or is it something else entirely ...

Whatever the reason, as you weave in and out of the zombies that have reached you. You feel your foot slip as you catch it on some debris in the street, causing you to fall. Your baseball bat falls from your hands and lands out of reach. Before you have a chance to retrieve it a zombie falls onto you, causing you to panic. Struggling beneath its weight you try to hold its mouth as far from your body as physically possible, using one arm to stop it from sinking its teeth into your flesh, using your other arm you reach into your waistband to retrieve the pistol Ronnie had given you earlier. 

Remembering how Ronnie told you to use it, you remove the safety and fire a shot but miss completely, causing you to panic further. Firing another shot only causes more zombies to head in your direction. As your panic increases your vision starts to blur, and the groaning of the zombies is drowned out by your heartbeat pounding in your ears. You can’t breathe. Still struggling beneath the zombie, you're certain you're about to meet your end, but suddenly the head of the zombie above you comes flying off and its lifeless body collapses on top of you. Holding your breath, you look up to see Ronnie standing above you, your dilated pupils fixed on him, unsure if this is real. His face is in a state of urgency as he offers you his free hand, carrying his machete in the other. You grab it, pulling yourself up. You limp slightly as you put your weight on the foot you slipped on earlier, “Can you run?” Ronnie asks quickly. You nod, unable to form a sentence, still in shock from your near-death experience, struggling to catch your breath. You start running as fast as you can with Ronnie by your side but you're unable to keep up with his wide strides and the pain in your injured foot causes you to slow down. The horde is on your tail as you struggle. Ronnie stops and without a word he picks you up, throwing you over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, running with you in tow. 

Now gaining some distance from the horde, turning a corner, you spot a house and Ronnie begins heading towards it. He slams the door behind him quickly, places you on the floor, and heads straight towards the window, keeping low down. Breathless and panting for air he watches out of the window. You sit in silence, watching him as your body quakes with fear. After what feels like an eternity, he stands up and approaches you. 

“They’re gone” he states, causing the strongest sense of relief to flood through you. Unable to control yourself, your eyes fill with tears as you let out an audible whimper, now sobbing. Ronnie kneels beside you, and you watch through teary eyes as he pauses briefly. Needing the comfort of something, anything, you pull him towards you, sinking your face into his chest as your arms wrap around him. His arms slowly match yours as he embraces you tightly, allowing you to collapse into him.


	3. Chapter Three

Composing yourself, you gently pull away from Ronnie, releasing your grip from around his body. You slowly bring your arms back to your side, deliberately avoiding eye contact with him, worried he’d see all of your vulnerabilities if you did, especially as you could sense his gaze watching your every move as if he were studying it. Normally you’d feel embarrassed by having an emotional outburst in front of someone but given the near-death experience, you figure it was okay, just this once.

You look down at your injured foot, pulling up your jean bottoms and revealing a swelling around your ankle, a purple and black bruise already forming. You trace your fingers over it, pain radiating from your touch as you let out a small whimper. 

“You’ve sprained it,” Ronnie says, still kneeling beside you, examining it carefully. 

“Is it bad?” you ask, worried. 

“It should be okay in a few days, you just need to rest it,” he says, rising to his feet, now looking down at you, “What happened back there anyway?”

You pause, considering your answer, still unsure of why you did it. You felt angry with yourself for making such a decision. If he hadn’t gotten himself out of the grocery store somehow, you would’ve been dead. Was it - was he - really worth the risk? You barely knew him, but for some reason, you were inexplicably drawn to him, and it frustrated you. You couldn’t make sense of it, nor control it, and it scared you. If today had taught you anything it was that this feeling wasn’t safe during an apocalypse, but you couldn’t tell him any of that without sounding mad. 

“The horde, it came out of nowhere,” you begin, “Steve and I fought off what we could but there were too many. I tried to get to you but I fell,” you say, as visions of it come flooding back.

“You tried to save me?” Ronnie questions. You nod, still avoiding his gaze. “Promise me, next time you’ll put yourself first? Don’t risk your life for mine,” he says sternly, almost as if he’s annoyed with you. 

“Okay … ” you reply, feeling small at his apparent disapproval of your earlier decision. 

“Good, now let’s get you onto the couch,” he says as he bends down, placing an arm around your back and his other arm under the bend in your knees. As he lifts you up, you place your arms around his shoulders for support. He smiles as he carries you. “Looks like I’ll be looking after you for a few days.”

“I’m sorry,” you respond, still annoyed at yourself for being so clumsy and falling in the first place.

“No, it’s the least I can do,” he says, placing you down onto the cream couch. He places a few pillows underneath your foot, raising it up. “Keep it elevated, it’ll help reduce the swelling,”. You nod at his advice, feeling slightly powerless in your injured state. “If you’re okay, I’m going to have a look around, see if I can find some pain killers.” 

You smile up at him. “I’ll be fine, go look,” you say, gesturing with your hands for him to go. As he leaves the room, you look around at your surroundings, or “home” for the next few days. The house you are hiding in looks as if it were abandoned suddenly, nothing has been touched. The living room is decorated in neutral cream colors, with another couch opposite the one you’re resting on, a coffee table separating them. Along the main wall, there’s a fireplace with family photographs sat on top of the surround. You feel a brief wave of sadness rush through you, as you think of your own family. You wonder if you’ll ever see them again. You wonder the same about your friends, remembering the events that caused your separation yesterday. In hindsight, you should’ve known they’d leave you behind - things weren’t the same since the breakup, but they were the only friends you had, and you didn’t know any better.

“Hey,” Ronnie says, entering the room, interrupting your thoughts, “I found some Advil, and the house is well stocked. We’ve got food, water, blankets, basically everything we need, so I’m ordering a house arrest,” he says, chuckling at his joke. 

You laugh slightly, “Well, I’m not going anywhere, Officer,” you say as you point towards your ankle. He smiles back at you as he sits on the couch opposite. “So, what was life for you before all of this?” you ask, intrigued.

“Life?” he questions, contemplating his answer “Oh gee, I guess, work. That was a big part,” he says as he makes himself more comfortable on the couch “And movies, I watched a lot of films when I wasn’t working.”

“What type of movies?” you ask, prompting him further. 

“Well, Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings ...” he pauses, “... I’m not selling myself very well, right now, am I?” he says, looking uncomfortable. His glasses are slightly askew as he rolls his lips and firmly presses them together, causing his brows to furrow as he looks down. You’re slightly taken aback by this, you didn’t think it was possible to witness him embarrassed like this, almost vulnerable. You smile as you think of a response.

“Hello there...” you say, cooly. Ronnie looks up at you instantly. His eyes begin to widen as a smirk appears.

“GENERAL KENOBI!” he says excitedly, almost jumping out of his seat. “Holy shit, I don’t believe it, where have you been all my life?” he says quickly as if he can’t control himself. 

“Oh, around and about, I guess?” you respond, shrugging, not sure what else to say. 

“Yes, right, absolutely. Are you hungry? I’m hungry, I’m gonna go and get something to eat,” Ronnie replies quickly, tripping over himself as he stands up, swiftly exiting the room before you’ve had a chance to respond to his question. 

******

As the sun begins to set, you feel your anxiety starting to rise. The food in your stomach from the meal Ronnie had prepared now makes you feel nauseous at the thought of the zombies coming back and you being too injured to fight them. Amid the struggle to escape earlier, you hadn’t been able to collect your baseball bat, which left you weaponless. You still had the pistol, but given what a poor shot you had been it didn’t give you any comfort. You look at Ronnie as he enters the room; he heads towards the window, pulling the drapes closed before sitting down on the couch opposite you. He had been quieter than usual since your conversation earlier - you hadn’t thought much of it initially as he seemed busy securing the house and preparing food, but now that was all done you were beginning to wonder if you had said something wrong earlier. 

“Would you teach me how to shoot?” you ask, wanting to break the silence. He looks up at you.

“Sure,” he says, pausing slightly, “We won’t be able to shoot around here, but I can teach you.” He lifts himself from the couch and approaches you. Standing above you he removes his pistol from the holster. Emptying it of ammunition, he kneels on the floor beside you as you stay sitting on the couch. “So, you want to use your dominant hand to grip the back strap as high as you can, place it into the crook between your thumb and index finger, like this ...” he says, showing you how he’s holding the pistol, “Then wrap your other fingers around the base below the trigger guard,” he says as you watch him intently. “Ready to try it?” he asks, handing you the pistol. You nod as you take it from his grasp, positioning it in your hands as you look towards him for reassurance.

“Like this?” you ask. 

He meets your gaze momentarily but breaks away to look down at your hands. “Almost,” he replies as his large hands meet yours. He begins gently repositioning your fingers so your grip around the pistol is corrected. The touch of his hands on yours reignites the feelings you had experienced back at the factory as he stood beside you, that inexplicable magnetic effect he has on you, the feeling you want to pull away from as it had proved to be dangerous, but this time you are unable to escape it, thanks to your injury. His hands continue to linger over yours as you hold the pistol. You look up at him, meeting his gaze. Your breath hitches as you realize your eyes are locked on his, but it’s not as uncomfortable as you imagined it would be. His body edges closer to you as you stay frozen; you can almost hear his shallow breathing as he moves forward ...

A sound from outside catches your attention, drawing your gaze. “Did you hear that?” you ask, looking back at him, panicked. He nods, letting go of your hand, placing a finger to his lips prompting you to stay quiet. He rises to his feet slowly, grasping his machete as he heads towards the window. You watch as he slowly pulls the drapes back carefully. You sit in silence, watching him intently as he looks outside, and you study his body language to figure out if there's an imminent threat. He stands still and rigid. After a few agonizing minutes, he turns back to you. You study his face, trying to read it.

“It’s nothing,” he says reassuringly. You exhale deeply, unaware you had been holding your breath. He makes his way back towards you, placing his machete on the coffee table before taking the pistol from your grasp without saying a word. You feel a sense of disappointment come over you as he does. You weren’t exactly sure what was happening before the noise disturbed your pistol handling lesson but for once it felt good, as if the outside world didn’t exist. There was no fear of the dead, no sadness for all that's been lost, no self-doubt or worry, just comfort. You watch him as you wonder if he felt it too, but he seems distant. It feels like he’s actively avoiding you, despite being in the same room. He doesn’t look in your direction, instead making himself busy reloading the pistol with the ammunition he had removed earlier, placing it back in his holster. The awkward silence is broken as he speaks. “You should get some rest,” he suggests.

“Okay,” you respond quietly, and you turn over onto your side, facing away from him, feeling hurt. Now you knew the answer - he did NOT feel the way you had earlier. 

*************

Five days had passed since your near-death experience. Your ankle had healed nicely, thanks to Ronnie taking care of you. He made sure you took your pain relief, found bandages to help compress the sprain, even helped you walk about when you felt able; you couldn’t fault him. Despite Ronnie acting distant that first evening in the house, he had otherwise been his usual self. You assumed that you had read the situation wrong when he was teaching you to hold the pistol - it wasn’t the first time your judgment had been wrong, you had a habit of that, but you were grateful that everything was good between the two of you. 

“Hey, look what I found,” Ronnie says, entering the bedroom you had been occupying. The sofa had been useful for the first night but you hardly slept, so once you were able to move about you had claimed the master bedroom. It had felt like luxury after the sofa and it was the thing you were going to miss most about the house. You pause packing your bag as you look towards Ronnie, standing in the doorway, almost as tall as the door frame itself. He’s holding an aluminum baseball bat, with a smile on his face.

“Oh my god, where did you find that?!” you ask, delighted he had found a weapon that you could use. 

“Back of a wardrobe”, he replies, gesturing towards another bedroom. 

You walk towards Ronnie and take the bat from his grasp, smiling as you place your hands around the handle and take a few swings. “It’s perfect,” you say, now smiling up at him. “Thank you, I feel much safer leaving now,”. He smiles back at you, looking pleased with himself. 

“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you anyway,” he confesses, blushing slightly. Those words make you feel involuntarily warm and giddy. You push the feeling away as you realize what’s happening, reminding yourself that you can’t allow these feelings to keep cropping up, especially as you were soon to be leaving the house. You need to be stronger, you can’t risk another near-death experience, plus from his actions that first night it was apparent he didn’t feel it. Friends, you repeated, just good friends. “How’s the ankle?” he asks, pulling you from your thoughts. 

“Oh, um, yup, good,” you reply, stumbling on your words

“Good, let’s get out of here and get back to the factory, I’m sure Steve will be glad to see us,” he says with a smirk. 

“Yeah, I’m sure he will be, after he left us,” you say, still angry at the thought of him driving off. “Why are we going back again?” you ask, genuinely curious. The house had been a safe haven, no attacks, no zombies. It felt almost silly to leave.

“For the others,” Ronnie replies, “Safety in numbers, plus the factory is better protected. It wouldn’t take many zombies to smash down the door here,”. As much as you want to stay in the house, you know he’s right. A small bout of jealousy builds up inside of you at the thought of not having him to yourself.

“Fine,” you say in defeat, wanting to escape the feeling, you sling your packed bag over your shoulder as you exit the bedroom, baseball bat in hand. 

Leaving the house in Centerville had been uneventful - it was only a fifteen-minute walk back to the police car that Ronnie had parked outside of town, almost a week ago. It wasn’t until you left the small rural town that you spotted any zombies - luckily it had only been a small handful. Your new baseball bat was much stronger, taking less force to eliminate the lone zombies. Ronnie had mostly stepped back, allowing you to take them down alone - it had helped improve your confidence in being able to defend yourself, something you needed after coming close to death. You were thankful Ronnie could sense you needed the confidence boost too. Once you had finished cleaning the lingering flesh from your bat, you headed towards the police car. “Can I drive?” you ask Ronnie. He pauses as he looks at you - you can see him considering your question.

“Gee, I dunno, I should drive really, but maybe just this once,” he replies. You smile smugly at him as you climb into the driver's seat, knowing this must be strange for him, allowing a regular citizen like yourself to drive the police car. You start the ignition as he climbs into the passenger's side, watching him as he makes sure to buckle his seatbelt.

“I’m not that bad!” you say playfully. He looks up at you with a playful smirk

“Safety first, now put yours on,” he says, prompting you to buckle your seatbelt. You roll your eyes as you do before driving off in the direction of the factory.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi :)
> 
> Thank you so much for being patient with this update!  
> I really hope you're enjoying this little fic so far, let me know in the comments what you think!
> 
> t//w; mention of suicide (non-graphic)

The twenty-minute drive back to the factory was silent. Ronnie had been quiet since you set off; you couldn’t work out if he was lost in his thoughts or just uncomfortable with your driving and opting to be nice and say nothing at all, rather than critique you. Luckily after spending the week together, bouts of silence had become normal, comfortable even, a sign of the growing friendship, you hoped. Hearing Ronnie shift in his seat, you glance towards him, taking your eyes off the road momentarily. You notice him reaching out towards the car’s audio system. 

“Will that work?” you ask, returning your eyes to the road. 

“I’m not sure,” he says, turning the radio on. The sound of static filling the car. You glance down, watching him fumble with the dials trying to pick up a signal. You sigh quietly to yourself - you knew it wouldn’t work. He carries on fiddling with the dial as you roll your eyes, starting to tune it out, until suddenly you hear something echoing, a small grainy voice comes across the radio. 

“Hello? Hello? Testing, 1...2, 1...2, is this on?...”

Your eyes widen. A broadcast? You pull the car over, wanting to give your full attention to the voice talking. You watch Ronnie turn the volume up - he stays silent with his eyes glued on the radio. His hand reaching into his top breast pocket pulling out a small notebook, complete with a pencil. If you weren’t so shocked about the broadcast, you would laugh. He was always so resourceful, in the most awkwardly adorable way. 

“Hello to the land of the living. If you can hear this, no, you are not dreaming, your radio really is picking up a broadcast. This isn’t a government signal, there is no government, no military, there is no zombie-free paradise and the worst, sadly, probably isn’t over. That’s the bad news. The good news is: you are not alone” 

You frown, still in disbelief you were hearing this.

“The world might have gone to hell but small pockets of humanity have survived and we’re still out here. The purpose of this broadcast is to give hope to whoever might hear it and to let you know you are absolutely not alone. No matter how bad it's gotten or how many horrors you’ve seen, you are not alone, so don’t give up. Not for a minute, not for a second. The only thing that separates us from them is hope…... Alright, for those of you hearing this, we can provide for all, a community for survivors. We are located at the Rosarito Hotel outside of New York City, I repeat, OUTSIDE of New York City - avoid the city at all costs.”

You glance at Ronnie, watching him as he hastily scribbles down the name of the hotel, his scratchy writing barely legible. The broadcast ends suddenly, filling the car with a loud static. You groan, closing your eyes as your hands instinctively cover your ears, protecting them from the loud noise before it slowly begins to subside. Your eyes pry open and you look towards Ronnie, removing your hands from your ears. He moves his large hand from the small volume dial of the radio, placing it back on his thigh, clutching at the notepad with his other hand. He doesn’t meet your gaze. He stays facing forward, as calm as always. 

“What the fuck was that?” you shriek suddenly, almost shaking, “What do they mean there’s no government, no military?!” you ask with urgency, now glaring at Ronnie, desperate for answers. He doesn’t give you any, still gazing forward, like he’s lost in a daydream. In your panicked state you reach out, grabbing his free hand, grasping it tightly with the slightest nudge to break him from his thoughts. “Ronnie?” you ask softly, looking at him desperately. He breaks from his trance and looks directly at you, taking a moment before responding.

“I...I don’t know,” he says, glancing down at your hand grasping his tightly. He pulls back from your grasp, taking your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours “...but we’re not alone, you understand?” he says, squeezing your hand tight as he looks at you. You nod at him, unable to form a response, feeling your nerves calm at his reassurance. “Good. Now let’s get back to the factory, tell the others about this and make our way to that hotel, okay?” 

“O...okay,” you stutter as he removes his hand from yours, placing the notebook back into his breast pocket. You reposition yourself as you grasp the wheel, continuing the drive to the factory - you are only a short distance away now.

As you approach the factory you see the pickup truck Steve had driven off in, parked outside of the fence. You hear Ronnie chuckle slightly as you come to a stop behind the pickup, switching off the engine.

“I have the key,” he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling the keys out, waving them slightly.  
You realise you had locked the gate when you left the factory last week and Ronnie was the only one who had a set of keys, meaning Steve wouldn't have been able to gain entry into the factory, unless he ...

“Has the fence been damaged?” you ask, looking at Ronnie. The amused look on his face falls as you assume he’s realised the same as you. Had Steve gained access to the factory and if so, how? 

“Let’s find out,” he says, exiting the car and grasping his machete. You follow behind him cautiously, now unsure if the factory was safe. As expected you find the fence damaged - the chain link had somehow been cut, making a large hole. Ronnie pauses as he examines the damage as your attention is caught by the faint sound of someone calling your name. You look towards the factory to see Lucy running towards you and Ronnie. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe it! You’re ALIVE!! ” Lucy says excitedly reaching the fence, slightly breathless.”Steve said the zombies had got you both!”

“Yeah we’re fine, what about everyone else?” you ask, concerned with the group's safety with the damage caused to the fence.

“Yes, we’re fine, now come on, let's get you inside!” Lucy says, gesturing for you and Ronnie to come with her. You both climb through the hole in the fence, leaving it exposed as you walk towards the factory.

“That fence needs fixing,” Ronnie says to Lucy, pointing back towards it.

“It’s fine, there's no zombies around here,” she says, answering Ronnie, linking her arm with yours as Ronnie follows behind you both. As you enter the factory, Lucy removes her arm, shouting out to the others.

“Guys! Look who's back!” Lucy shouts out, causing the others to come together and congregate in the center of the factory. Steve pauses as he locks eyes with you.

“How the fuck did you manage that?” he asks, looking shocked as he throws his arms in the air in disbelief. Before you’ve even had a chance to respond he butts in. “You’re lucky, it was suicide running back to that Grocery Store, y’know that?” he says, pausing slightly, crossing his arms, “You should’ve left with me.” 

“What?” Ronnie asks, looking at you. You realise you failed to inform Ronnie about that. “Why didn’t you leave with him?” he asks, putting you on the spot. The entire group is looking at you now, making you feel uncomfortable. 

“I...I...I told you,” you say, words stuttering out, “I tried to get to you,” you respond looking at Ronnie. His jaw clenches, looking angry, “I couldn’t just lea-” 

“Forget it,” he snaps back. You can see the rage in his eyes as he looks over his glasses at you before turning to look at the rest of the group. You bite the inside of your lip, as you stand there quietly, embarrassed, anger building in you. Who does he think he is, talking to you like that in front of everyone? You weren’t one for conflict - in all honesty you had never had the confidence to answer anyone back - but he was being infuriating. He was utterly frustrating; not even half an hour ago he had held your hand and calmed you down and now he had the audacity to act like this. 

“No,” you respond, crossing your arms, “I decide what I do, and if I want to save your ass, then I will!” you spit back, looking at Ronnie. He turns to meet your gaze. He’s silent as he looks at you, maybe even surprised by your response. You walk off from the group, not giving Ronnie a chance to respond. Fuck him and his large soft hands.

You end up escaping to the factory roof - it is peaceful up there. No one has come rushing to find you, which you are thankful for. You need some time alone to process everything, especially what you had heard earlier in the car with Ronnie on the radio. It was overwhelming - the thought of no government and no military was hard to comprehend. There are no laws, no protection, no emergency services, no hospitals. Is anyone working on a vaccine, would a vaccine stop it? You had heard in news reports before things got bad that polar fracking was to blame, that it had disrupted the Earth’s rotational axis. You didn’t know what that meant, or if it could even be reversed. Then you remembered Ronnie talking about a friend being taken away by aliens. You still hadn’t figured out if he was joking. With everything going on, you wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. All you knew for sure was that you were still alive and that you didn’t plan on dying anytime soon.  
Your thoughts were interrupted as you hear the door leading onto the roof open. You glance towards it and see Ronnie approaching. You look away from him, sighing slightly - lucky for him, he had been smart enough to give you some time to calm down. 

“Hey ...” he says sheepishly. You notice him keeping a slight distance from you as if he’s testing the waters. 

“Hi,” you respond coolly, not engaging further. If he was coming up here to apologise, then he was going to have to work for it. Normally you’d be more apologetic, more forgiving, more of a push over. You had been that way with your ex-partner and that obviously hadn’t gotten you anywhere but this was a new world. You knew you had to be stronger and that started by standing up for yourself. Ronnie would have to understand that you wouldn’t leave him. Your friends had left you and it hurt more than you cared to admit. Plus, you enjoyed having Ronnie around, when he wasn’t being a jerk, that was.

“I’m sorry about earlier...” Ronnie says, pausing slightly “...It’s just, y...you didn’t tell me that you could’ve left with Steve ...” he says softly. You stay quiet, taking in his words. “If I hadn’t got out of the grocery store and rescued you then you’d be dead, and that would’ve been my fault.” He pauses again slightly like he’s waiting for you to respond, but you stay quiet. “I guess, I’m just trying to figure out why you did it?” he asks, stepping closer to you. Honestly, you still hadn’t figured that part out fully yet, but you couldn’t tell him how you felt a pull to him, how safe he made you feel. You were trying to ignore those feelings as much as you could - they were dangerous, they could get you killed and he wasn’t helping you forget about them. By holding your hand and being protective of you he was strengthening those feelings instead of erasing them. 

“Because you're my friend,” you answer back. It wasn’t untrue, but it was a simplified justification. 

“Oh….okay,” he says quietly. You glance towards him, wanting to gauge his reaction, but he’s looking away. You can sense the awkward tension in the air between you both as silence fills the gaps between your long pauses. You know you were holding back the truth but it felt like he was holding back from something too. He runs his hand through his hair, brushing back loose strands that had fallen forward before looking up at you. “And you’re my friend too...” he replies with a half-hearted smile, looking slightly deflated, “...Which is why I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I’ve already lost the majority of my town's residents and have had to kill my Chief,” he says with a deep sigh. Admittedly you had forgotten he had to shoot his Chief the night you rescued him in the cemetery and that you were still in his hometown, meaning each zombie you came across he might have known. You were able to understand his point of view better now - even if he didn’t show it, he had experienced loss and it must have hurt him. If he considers you a friend then maybe he is fearful of losing you too?

“I understand,” you say softly, approaching him, closing the distance between you as you reach your arms around his upper torso, embracing him. He stands tense before relaxing and giving in to the embrace, wrapping his arms around you as his hand rubs your back. “But don’t talk to me like that again,” you say sternly looking up at him as you pull away, smirking as he meets your gaze.

“Yes, sorry about that,” he replies, dropping his arms back down to his side. 

“Anyway, we should probably tell the group about that radio broadcast,” you say, changing the subject.

“I already have,” he says, placing his hands on his hips.

“And? How did they take it?” you ask, curious of their reactions.

“Well, Steve thinks it's a hoax and doesn’t want to go, so I think him and his family are staying here. Lucy and Sarah are having a think about it. I guess it’s a lot to take in. We're about a hundred and forty miles from New York City so providing there's no issues en route it should only take a couple of hours to drive there,” he replied.

“Do you think it’s a hoax?” you question. You hadn’t considered that. What if Steve was right?

“No way of knowing, but it wouldn’t hurt to get out of Centerville and explore,” he answers. You have to admit you are intrigued about the world outside of the town; you have a small hope that maybe it wasn’t as bad out there, but you would only know for sure by leaving. You wrap your arms around yourself to help keep warm - you had been so engrossed in your conversation with Ronnie that you hadn’t noticed the sunset, causing the temperature to drop. “Do you wanna go back inside?” Ronnie asks, glancing at your arms wrapped around yourself. You nod, exiting the roof with Ronnie; you head back down to the main factory floor to reunite with the others. 

You notice Steve having a heated discussion with his wife, and you wonder if it has something to do with the broadcast as Lucy and Sarah approach you both. 

“So, is the lovers’ tiff resolved?” Lucy asks with a prying expression on her face, her head slightly tilted, wanting answers. Sarah rolls her eyes at you, mouthing the word ‘sorry’ silently.

“Ohhh! No, no, no, we’re not lovers!'' you answer quickly, correcting her as you laugh slightly from the embarrassment of the upfront and personal question. 

“Nooo!” Ronnie responds, slightly high pitched, almost as quickly as you, supporting your response.

“Hmm,” Lucy replies, her eyes squinting, as if she's trying to study you both.

“Anyway, did you guys decide if you were coming with us?” you ask, wanting to change the topic. 

“Yes, we're gonna come with you, if that's okay?” Sarah answers.

“Yeah of course, we’ll set off in the morning. Providing the route is clear, it should only take a few hours,” Ronnie replies, as you notice Steve rushing towards you all with his family. You notice his daughter Katie crying as his wife Alice tries to console her. 

“We’ve got a problem!” he blurts out, his eyes widened in alarm. You all look at him confused. “Zombies. Outside,” he says as his voice cracks. 

“Okay?” you respond calmly, shrugging your shoulders at his behaviour as you grasp your bat, prepared to take them down. 

“No! You don’t understand!” he shouts, now concerning you with his behaviour. You look at Ronnie as he walks towards a window, stopping suddenly.

“Shit!” Ronnie shouts, “I knew that fence should’ve been fixed!” he says, rushing back to the group, “Why didn’t you fix the fence Steve?! You’ve put everyone in danger!” Ronnie says, his voice almost exploding out of him as he points his finger at Steve. 

“Me?! This is your damn fault, you led ‘em here!!” Steve argues back, charging towards Ronnie throwing up his forearms, preparing to fight. 

“Woah!” you exclaim, coming between them, “Does somebody want to tell us what's going on?!” you ask urgently as your eyes dart between the two of them.

“There’s a horde outside the fence, must be at least a hundred, they’re filtering in through the damaged fence. If we don’t escape now, we’ll be trapped here,” Ronnie says calmly to you, as if he is trying to spare you the panic, but you can see the fear in his eyes and just from that you can tell the situation is dire. 

“What are we gonna do?” Sarah asks, panicked, looking at Ronnie. You can see him thinking, trying to come up with a solution. You know the fence surrounds the factory, there is only one entrance that Ronnie has the keys for, but the horde is coming from that direction meaning you can’t escape that way. It also means your transport is unreachable, meaning if you do somehow manage to get out you’d be escaping on foot.

“Steve, what did you cut the fence with?” Ronnie asks, looking at him. 

“Bolt cutters,” Steve replies, his eyes widening slightly before rushing over to his belongings. He returns quickly with the bolt cutters in hand. 

“Right, we’re gonna have to cut through the fence behind the factory and escape that way. Luckily the fence at the front is holding off the majority of the horde for now, giving us some time. We’ll need to take out the zombies that have got through the damaged fence, and cover Steve whilst he concentrates on cutting the fence, okay?” Ronnie says. The group nods before splitting off momentarily to gather their weapons. 

Ronnie pulls on your arm gently, pulling you into him. “Don’t do anything stupid, okay?” he asks softly, almost whispering, his eyes transfixed on you. You look up at him, meeting his gaze. You can sense the tension between the two of you as adrenaline rushes through you, causing your blood to quicken as the feeling of electricity makes your skin tingle. You can feel Ronnie’s heart rate increase. Was it normal for your body to react this way with a friend or was it just your body preparing to fight? As the group returns he loosens his grip on your arm, letting you go as he walks ahead slightly, leading the group towards the exit with his machete in hand. You follow, bat in hand, preparing to take down the zombies that had already made it through the damaged fence. This was going to be your toughest fight so far.


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for being patient with this chapter!   
> I found writing a different POV difficult and my wonderful editor has been sucked into inktober, hence the delay!  
> This chapter is Ronnie summarising the story so far from his POV  
> I've introduced his POV as it'll be VERY necessary for a big upcoming plot I have planned !!
> 
> Hope you enjoy, we'll be back with y/n next chapter :)

**Ronnies POV**

The situation filled you with dread - you were livid with Steve for damaging the fence and not repairing it; if he had, this wouldn’t be happening. Even if the horde had still shown up, you could have controlled it. All week you had thought that returning to the factory would be your safest option, that you’d be able to take care of y/n here, that you’d be able to rest slightly from worrying about her. Now, you are trapped by the thing that was meant to protect you - if your plan to get everyone out didn’t work and you failed to escape, then that was it, you were all dead. You had never worried about death as much as you had these past ten days; it was overwhelming, exhausting - so much had happened in that time ...

One day you were going to work as usual, and the next you were being called in early about an incident at the local diner. With all the strange things that had been happening around Centerville, like the daylight savings being out of whack and animals going missing, you knew the moment you saw the bodies in the diner that it must have been zombies. Cliff didn’t take you seriously, to begin with - it wasn’t until you found the empty graves at the cemetery later that day that he fully believed you. Things got bad fairly quickly after that - you managed to pick up supplies from the hardware store before returning to the station. Meeting up with your other colleague, Officer Mindy Morrison. She was a nice girl - if things hadn't gone to shit, you’d probably have settled down with her. You didn’t love her, but you could have. You would’ve made a good husband, a good father, provided for them, and enjoyed a peaceful life in Centerville. Hell, you would have made Chief too and life would’ve been easy, good even, but the second Mallory O’Brien arose from the dead, that idea shattered. 

When you saw Mallory rise from the dead you weren’t scared, you just stood a gasp, captivated by her, she was the first zombie you saw. She wasn’t threatening in the way you thought zombies would be, she was too small, too slow. Cliff had attempted to eliminate her first by shooting at her, but he didn’t aim for the head like you had told him to, so it didn’t stop her. You stepped forward, taking the machete from the box of supplies from the hardware store, grasping the handle and swinging it forcefully at Mallory’s neck. It took a few attempts to get a clean cut while you perfected your swing but you managed to decapitate her in the end. She was your first kill; you’d lost count of how many zombies you had taken down now, but you’d never forget Mallory being your first.

As you stood watching the horror unfold, you saw the only person that seemed immune to it all approach the station. She was the new, quirky undertaker, Zelda Winston. She had come by the station offering to help monitor the police radio while the rest of you went out to patrol Centerville. You thought it was a little odd but Cliff allowed it, agreeing to meet up with her at the cemetery later that evening. As you, Cliff, and Mindy patrolled the streets, it became clear that the entire town had fallen victim to the zombies. There was no one left for you to help, so you all headed to the cemetery, but the moment you got there you quickly became trapped in the patrol car by a horde. In hindsight, the cemetery probably wasn’t the best rendezvous point, but all you could do now was wait for Zelda. As the zombies thrashed themselves at the car trying to gain access, Mindy began freaking out, having seen her Grandmother back from the dead. You tried to reassure her, telling her to keep it together, but she couldn’t take it anymore. She bailed out of the car, leaving you and Cliff - there was nothing you could do to stop her. The only thing you remember doing in response was locking the car doors to protect yourself and Cliff as you sat waiting for Zelda to show up. You had hoped she would be able to help you out of the situation, but as you watched her cross the cemetery towards you, it became apparent why she was so peculiar. She stopped in the center, attracting the zombies’ attention away from the patrol car. This meant that you were no longer trapped, but you and Cliff were too shocked to move as you looked up, out of the windshield. Hovering above Zelda ... was a spaceship. An actual UFO spaceship. Cylinder shaped, floating in the sky, lighting up the entire cemetery. Zombies stood frozen beneath it as if they were just as captivated by it as you and Cliff were. It beamed Zelda up, leaving as quickly as it came. You sat in disbelief with Cliff for a moment, noting how unexpected it was. The realization came over you that you only had one option left now, and that was to give it your best shot. You knew it was going to end badly - there were too many zombies for you and Cliff to survive, you had accepted that. As you sat contemplating your final moments, you knew you had lived a good life, but there was a pang of regret knowing there was still so much to live for, places you wanted to visit, people you wanted to meet, love you wanted to experience. You hadn’t expected one of those things to appear so suddenly.

You and Cliff managed to take out a handful of zombies, but there were too many of them. They quickly closed in on you both, leaving you standing back to back, weapons in hand, ready to fight to the death. Suddenly the sound of gunshots drew the horde’s attention away from you and Cliff - you glanced over to see a group of people running from the forest and attacking the zombies. A rescue was the last thing you expected! You started slaughtering the zombies that still neared in on you as the group took out the horde that had broken away. You don’t know how long it took but finally, you looked around and saw that the entire horde had been eliminated, and a softly-spoken voice caught your attention. You didn’t really notice her at first, the darkness acting as a cover to her features. She asked if you were okay, but when Cliff didn’t respond, you knew instantly something was wrong. You weren’t prepared when he told you he had been bitten - you instinctively began removing your belt to help slow the blood loss, wanting to believe there was something you could do to help him, to save him. He knew it was too late and so did you deep down, you just didn’t want to admit it. Cliff wasn’t just your boss, he was more than that, he was your friend, someone you looked up to. When he asked you to take his life, passing you his shotgun, you couldn’t put together a coherent response. You knew he didn’t want to turn into a zombie and you didn’t want to see him turn either, but you stood frozen, mentally registering what he was asking you to do, almost dissociating yourself from the situation. You were lost in your thoughts when you heard that softly-spoken voice again, bringing you back to reality. She offered to do it for you, which was a huge offer to make considering you'd never met before, and you were moved by the gesture, she must have been watching you as you zoned out, sensing your apprehension, but you had to do it yourself. Cliff asked you, he trusted you to take his life and you weren’t going to let him down. You purposely chose not to engage with Cliff, keeping silent; talking would've made it harder than it needed to be. It was something you wanted over with quickly. He gave you a nod before you pulled the trigger, letting you know it was okay. You felt empty and void of emotion as you pulled the trigger, your body jerking backward involuntarily from the force of the shot. You stood silent as you watched Cliff fall to the ground; you’d lost the entire town, citizens you’d spent years protecting were now gone, Mindy too and now Cliff. You were completely alone. You looked towards the softly spoken girl for comfort; you needed someone to tell you it was going to be okay.

She was the last thing you expected to come running into your life, and you were attracted to her the moment you saw her. It was like you had dreamed her into existence the exact moment you needed her. You were transfixed, struck by the confusing mixture of emotions you were experiencing; adrenaline, grief, lust, infatuation, but weirdly comforted by them all at the same time. She felt like familiarity like you had known her your whole life, despite having never met her before. It was frightening how you fell for her so quickly - you wondered how it had been possible that you’d lived without her all these years because you sure as hell couldn’t imagine being without her now. That’s when you decided, you may have failed to save your town, failed to protect Mindy and Cliff, but you wouldn’t, you couldn’t, let anything happen to her. 

So when you heard gunshots the next day during the supply run, your stomach sank. You knew it was y/n, you had given her the gun. You ran out of the grocery store as quickly as you could, slaughtering any zombie that dared crossed your path, ferocious as you went, powered by pure adrenaline as you tried to reach her, panicking that you were already too late. As her eyes flicked open, staring up at you, a flush of relief flooded through you. You rushed to get her out of there, finding refuge in a nearby house, quick to question what had happened, wondering how she had come so close to death, how she had injured herself. When she told you she had tried to get to you, risked her life for you, you felt physically sick. You had only just met her, you didn’t want to lose her, you were supposed to be the one protecting her, not the other way around. You made her promise not to do it again, as you set your focus on tending to her injury, taking care of her. It made you feel good like you were useful. 

In a way her injury had proved to be beneficial, it had meant staying at the house together whilst she recovered, meaning you got to know her more. You discovered she was a teacher, which you thought was amusing as your mother had been one, before she passed away that is, long before this apocalypse. It took you back to your childhood, remembering the nickname the other kids would give you, “Ronnie Teachers’son”. You shared your interests with her, and communicating with her came easily, it felt effortless, like you just fit together. So when she managed to quote Star Wars, you lost it. Where had she been all your life? It felt like a cruel joke, that you wouldn’t find her until now, during a damn zombie apocalypse. At one point you found yourself mere moments away from kissing her, but a noise from outside broke the moment. You cursed yourself - what were you thinking? Even if she had kissed you back, what would it matter? The world was different now, it was unforgiving. What you felt meant nothing, every day could be your last day and you knew that, but there was the smallest part of you rejecting that thought. Almost screaming out, that if every day had the possibility of being your last, then surely you should embrace it? Allow yourself to fall for her completely, even if logically, it made no sense. For now though, you decided to keep what you felt to yourself - you needed to figure her out first.

By the end of the week, you were no clearer about her feelings. All you knew for sure was that yours had grown stronger, despite your efforts to try and stop it, and it was driving you mad. You kept silent as she drove back to the factory, trying in vain to control your thoughts. You tried to distract yourself by attempting to get the radio to work, not expecting to come across a broadcast. 

You listened intently, scribbling down notes, wanting to make sure you didn’t miss anything important. The broadcast was more dire than you had expected. It wasn’t hearing about the non-existent government or military that shook you, it was hearing that there was no zombie-free paradise. It pulled you from your daydream, making you realize that no matter how badly you wanted y/n, it was never going to be easy. You were always going to be in a state of fear. 

When you reunited with the rest of the group at the factory, you knew instantly the damaged fence was bad news; you should’ve fixed it straight away but got distracted when you discovered y/n had the chance to escape with Steve on the day she almost got herself killed. You had assumed that Steve, being the asshole he was, he had just left her, not that she chose to stay. You felt this unfamiliar mess of emotions build in you. You were angry, frustrated, confused, and maybe even a little upset with her as you realized that she had chosen to risk her life for you and then decided not to tell you the truth. You didn’t understand her, or why she would do it. You were used to being so calm and collected all the time that all of these emotions were overwhelming. When you heard her trying to explain herself, it only caused you to lash out at her. You regretted it instantly - you knew you messed up as you watched helplessly as she walked away from you.

You moved to go after her instantly but Sarah pulled on your arm, telling you to give her some time. She was the quieter, more reserved of the twins; she didn’t pry as her sister would have. To pass the time you told the group about the broadcast, and they were skeptical. Steve declined to go almost immediately, casting it off as a hoax. The thought had never crossed your mind but if there was the slightest chance things could be different there with y/n, then you were willing to risk it. You had to go and find her now, apologize, the guilt was overwhelming. She was up on the roof when you found her, you approached her slowly, unsure if she wanted to see you. You offered a sheepish “Hey”, her reply was short and sharp, and you realized you’d really messed up. Fuck. You tried to explain yourself, you wanted to understand her reasons, you hoped that maybe she had done it because she couldn’t live without you too. That idea quickly shutdown the moment she called you “friend”. You couldn’t look at her, you barely responded - there it was, now you knew how she felt, and it hurt more than you expected.

You didn’t have a chance to dwell on the rejection for very long though, as Steve informed you of the horde gaining access to the factory via the damaged fence. All you could do was ask y/n to not do anything stupid - you still wanted to protect her, even if she didn’t feel the same way about you. You left her side as you exited the factory, ready to fight, still thinking about the broadcast, about the community. Maybe if you made it there with her, things could be different?


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for being patient!  
> This chapter hasn't been beta - so apologies for any mistakes, but I wanted to get it published for you  
> Hope you enjoy it

Stepping outside the factory, you could hear the collective groans of the undead as they thrashed their bodies against the chain-link fence trying to gain access. Their groans grew louder as they watched you all filter out into the open space, the moonlight casting your shadows in the clear night sky. There must have been about twenty zombies that had managed to gain access through the damaged fence, between the seven of you that number was easy enough to deal with. Ronnie took down the first zombie with ease, throwing his upper body strength into the swing as he unleashed his machete into a wandering zombie, decapitating the head clean. You acquire your first target, as it lunges towards you, flesh already decaying from its lifeless body, you step back from its grasps raising your bat, swinging it with force as you land a blow to the head, causing the zombie to collapse on the ground in front of you. You lift your bat up to gain leverage, plunging it back down with force into the skull of the zombie to ensure it was eliminated. The others begin taking down the other lurking zombies with guns, the sound of several guns going off at once was deafening, it was mixed with the chorus of the dead moaning in the distance, growing louder as the gunshots riled them up. If the horde wasn’t big enough already, then the sound of gunshots would only draw more now. With the majority of the zombies cleared from the open space, you take a moment to catch your breath, looking towards Ronnie for direction. 

“Steve, head to the back of the building and start cutting through that fence, Katie and y/n go with him and cover, the rest of us will stay here and hold them back,” Ronnie says urgently at the group. You pause slightly taking one last glance at Ronnie before heading off to the other end of the building. You didn’t like being separated from Ronnie in situations like this, it made you feel uncomfortable and on edge, knowing you wouldn’t be able to reach him in time if anything were to happen. You knew he was sending you off with Steve for your own protection, you weren’t sure if you should be thankful or annoyed with him, but it wasn’t the time to question his decision. You knew it made some sense sending you off with them, Ronnie knew you could defend yourself. Steve needed to concentrate on cutting that fence and Katie still seemed as afraid and shaken as she was on that first night, you were the best option in keeping them both safe.

Reaching the fence behind the building, Steve quickly begins snipping at the metal of the chain-link fence, working hard to create an exit route for the group. You realize this wasn’t a quick task, feeling like a spare part whilst you stand over him, keeping watch for any potential threats. You glance over at Katie, who’s standing quietly, her arms folded, you could see her physically shaking. 

“It’ll be okay,” you say as you approach her, trying to be reassuring. She doesn’t look at you, keeping her head down as she shakes her head in disagreement.

“It’s never going to be okay,” she says, her voice muffled and clearly emotional. You stand awkwardly beside her, not sure how to respond, you knew deep down that she could be right. You offer up a closed-lip smile and a reassuring arm rub before your attention is caught by the shouting of Ronnie and the others. You turn the back corner of the building, giving you a clear view towards the front of the factory, you can see the horde of zombies beginning to overpower the fence. 

“IT’S GONNA GIVE!” you hear Ronnie shout urgently above the moans and groans of the horde. Ronnie and the others pause, stepping back slightly as they watch the fence begin bending inward, you watch with them, knowing there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. The weight of the horde pushing against the section of the damaged fence causes it to crash to the ground. The sound of the metal hitting the ground echoes as you watch the horde gain access to the factory. You watch in fear as the zombies begin filtering in.

“You shoot or you run, don’t let them get close!” you hear Ronnie shout out as he removes his pistol from his belt. They begin shooting at the first row of the horde, they fall like dominos to the ground. There's so many of them that you're unable to even estimate the amount you’re up against, but you know for sure there isn’t enough ammo to take them all down. You break your glare and rush over to Steve and Katie.

“You gotta hurry up, Steve!” you shout in a state of panic, “the fence- it’s fallen, they’re coming!” you say as the trepidation races through you. Steve doesn’t look up at you, as he continues trying to cut the fence as quickly as he can. 

“I'M TRYING! I’M TRYING!” he shouts back, his hands shaking. You glance at Katie, who is now crying hysterically. You don’t have time to comfort her as you rush back to the side of the building, the sound of gunshots still echoing loudly in the otherwise quiet night sky. You can see a mass of corpses on the ground that Ronnie and the others have managed to take down but it doesn’t seem to have mattered, a large number of zombies are still entering the factory compound from the fallen fence. 

“BACK UP!” you hear Ronnie shout to the others, they all begin stepping backward, lowering their guns as they create a distance between themselves and the horde. You wonder if they’ve run out of ammo or have very little left as Ronnie looks down towards you briefly. You can’t make out his expression, but you can only assume it's not a good one giving the current predicament. You watch as he looks back at the incoming horde, their mass numbers easily outnumbering you all. 

“LET’S GO!” Ronnie shouts to the others, abandoning their positions, you know they are powerless at holding the zombies back. They begin sprinting towards you as the slow-moving horde follows behind them. As the group reunites, you can see the terror in everyone's eyes. Alice rushes straight to her daughter's side, comforting her as she cries out hysterically. The twins are holding each other's hands whilst grasping a weapon in the other, preparing to fight till the last moment. Ronnie rushes towards Steve, he’s shouting something incoherent at him but you can’t make it out. Time seems to move in slow motion as noises blur together, you stand frozen on the spot, watching the horde get closer and closer. This must be your body completely overrun with fear, your fight or flight mode trying to kick in, except there is no option to run, and you know fighting is futile. For a moment it feels like your body and mind have completely given up, accepting the inevitable. A hand grabs your arm, shaking you from your trance.

“Come on, we need to go!” Ronnie shouts, pulling on your arm. You turn to see that Steve has managed to cut a hole just about big enough for the group to squeeze through. Steve gestures towards Katie and Alice to start climbing through the hole. Katie goes first, squeezing through with ease. She emerges on the side of the fence, raising herself to her feet, standing awkwardly as she awaits the rest of the group to climb through. As Alice begins climbing through the hole in the fence, you look up at Katie to see a zombie emerging from the wooded area behind her.

“Katie!!” You shout trying to let her know, but the zombie is already too close, it manages to grab her and sink its teeth into her neck before she’s had a chance to defend herself. She screams out in pain, catching the attention of the rest of the group. You hear a loud gunshot from beside you, your ears ring as you turn to see Ronnie holding his pistol, having just shot at the zombie that attacked Katie, taking it down instantly. Alice begins screaming as she crawls through the fence and over to Katie. 

“No, no, no no” she cries over and over again as she cradles a dying Katie in her arms. All you can hear is wailing from Alice and the moans of the dead becoming louder and louder as the horde closes in on you. Your heart races as you try and take in what’s happening. Steve pushes himself through the fence to join his family, Lucy and Sarah follow behind him leaving you and Ronnie left to escape. 

“GO!,” Ronnie shouts, nudging you towards the hole in the fence, pushing you to go first, you climb through carefully, making it through safely. The horde begins to gather around Ronnie as he follows behind you, his utility belt catching on the cut chain link fence, stopping him from moving forward, he pulls at the belt to try and free it.

“RONNIE!” you shout out as a zombie grabs at his leg, ready to take a bite, he catches it just in time, lifting his foot, kicking the zombie in the head with force off of him as he manages to free himself the chain link, you offer him your hand, helping to pull him through the hole in the fence. As Ronnie lifts himself to his feet, the horde throws themselves up against the fence, trying to reach you. You look down to see Alice sobbing as she cradles a passed Katie, Steve sits beside them holding Katie’s lifeless hand in silence. 

“Guys!” Lucy shouts as she points towards the trees, zombies that must have separated from the horde begin emerging towards you. It's a small amount but enough to make you aware that it's not safe here, you’ve got to go. Sarah and Lucy begin taking out the lone zombies emerging, leaving you and Ronnie with Steve and Alice. 

“We have to go...” you say softly kneeling down beside the grief-stricken parents, Alice’s wimping is quiet as Steve remains silent, they stay still, not moving from Katie's body. 

“I, I can’t leave her...” Alice manages to say through whimpered tears, you stroke her arm to try and console her, “...She’s my baby” Alice continues, kissing Katie's forehead. You look on, knowing you can’t begin to understand what they’re going through at this moment. 

“It’s not safe here, we have to GO!” Ronnie says in urgency, almost raising his voice in panic. His words cause Steve to rise to his feet in a blink of an eye, he locks his arm back and with a tremendous force, realizes it, his fist landing with a loud thud on Ronnie’s jaw. Ronnie stands unmoved, with a shocked expression on his face as he grasps at his jaw with his hand.

“YOU DID THIS!” Steve shouts at Ronnie, you can hear his voice breaking as he shouts, as if he’s on the edge of breaking down. You rub Alice’s back before standing up and getting between the two men. You glance at Ronnie, noticing the blood running down the left-hand side of his lip, you want to ask if he’s okay but your focus is on Steve, he needs it more. 

“Steve, Ronnie is right, we need to go. It’s only a matter of time before the horde brings down this fence” you say softly before pausing briefly trying to gauge his reaction, the sound of the horde still trying to get at you becoming more alarming as time goes on. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through but if we don’t leave now, then we're all dead,” you say with empathy. Steve lowers his head as he begins whimpering, nodding as he does. You look up at Ronnie who wipes the blood from his mouth with his hand, wiping it onto his pants leg. Sarah and Lucy rejoin the group after clearing the few stray zombies.

“Are we ready?” Lucy asks, you nod as you walk over to Alice and Steve. You wrap an arm around Alice, as you gently pull her to her feet, she reluctantly lets go of Katie as she stands. The next thought that pops into your head is one you don’t want to say out loud, but you know if someone doesn’t kill the head that Katie will reanimate. 

“I can’t do it” Steve mumbles as he kisses his daughter's forehead goodbye as if he were reading your mind. Ronnie doesn’t say a word but looks to you with a knowing nod. You lead Alice and Steve away from Katie’s body, Lucy and Sarah follow you, leaving Ronnie behind. You turn back, watching as Ronnie lingers slightly before taking his machete from its holster. He delivers a quick and silent blow to Katie’s head before catching up with the rest of the group, leaving the factory behind.

You walk aimlessly forward, this is the first time you’ve found yourself out in the open, in the dead of night with no idea of where you were heading. It was cold, so cold, you cursed your choice of clothing, but you hadn’t dressed with the apocalypse in mind on that first day. Your converse sneakers were wet and covered in mud from walking through the forest. You felt dirty, unprotected, unsafe, and terrified another horde would approach you from any angle. You made your way through the wooded area, navigating the trees, trying to be as vigilante as possible. You could still hear the groans of the undead, it was disorienting, you couldn’t see them and couldn’t tell if the sound was coming from behind you or in front of you. You jumped as a hand grabbed yours, raising your bat in self-defense before lowering it again as you realize it’s Ronnie. You were on edge, your senses were heightened, his touch warmed you slightly as it sent a wave of calmness through your body. 

“It’s okay, it’s me, c’mon this way, there's a road to the west,” Ronnie says, leading you and the group out of the forest, he pulls you with him, never letting his grip loosen from your hand. 

The road is pitch black, and void of any vehicles. The only light guiding you along the black tarmac is the reflection from the full moon. You're thankful that Ronnie seems to have an idea of where he’s going. The group stays silent, following him blindlessly. Steve and Alice only focussed on consoling each other, normally you’d expect Steve to challenge Ronnie’s leadership but that wasn’t the case tonight, understandably. The group walked the road two by two, you and Ronnie leading from the front as Steve and Alice followed behind. The twins covering the back. You didn’t know where you were heading but you knew you had to keep walking, you had to gain some distance between yourselves and the horde. You look up at Ronnie, still clutching his hand.

“Is this okay?” he asks, lifting his hand in yours slightly, “cause y’know, the friend thing and-” you cut him off, knowing he’s about to get himself into a ramble.

“It’s okay” you reply with a warmth in your voice, you had forgotten about calling him a friend, you knew he meant more than that but you didn’t want to acknowledge those niggling thoughts at the back of your mind, especially not now. You had just witnessed the devastating effects of losing someone, you still couldn’t begin to understand how Steve and Alice must be feeling and ultimately you didn’t want to. You knew you wouldn’t be strong enough to endure it, you knew at some point you’d have to start distancing yourself from Ronnie before you grew too attached, but you’d start tomorrow, tonight was an exception. 

“Are you okay?” you ask him quietly, realizing it’s the first time you’ve managed to have a conversation with him since the events from earlier. He takes a deep breath before sighing. 

“Did we do this?” he asks you quietly, his voice heavy. He doesn’t look at you, keeping himself facing forward instead, as if he’s being cautious, not wanting to miss spotting any potential threats. For the first time, you can sense what he’s feeling; guilt. Only now after his question, you consider the possibility. Did you cause this? Did you bring the horde to the factory? You think back to leaving the house with Ronnie, you remember coming across very few zombies. There was no way a horde could have followed you back without you knowing, you were certain of that. 

“No” you pause, before continuing, “We didn’t do this” you squeeze his hand tight to reassure him. “How’s your lip?” you ask, changing the subject as you remember the blow Steve had landed on his face.

“Oh, it’s fine” he answers, his tone now less heavy as he glances at you with a closed lip smile. His brief smile causes one to creep onto your face, despite everything this was nice. Walking hand in hand with Ronnie was nice. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've also started working on a new Ronnie fic - he's a little more 'flirty' and much more smutty!  
> Check out Late Night Patrol  
> :)


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience  
> I now have two wips; this and Late Night Patrol (Ronnie Peterson but darker and full of smut)  
> Happy holidays and thank you for reading!
> 
> Anyway, should we turn up the heat on this slow burn?!

You continue walking throughout the night, unsure for how long, but you knew you were exhausted. Relief floods through your body when you see a lone mailbox up ahead. Letting go of Ronnie’s hand, you rush towards it, studying the area with caution as you approach. You spot a dirt track beside the mailbox leading down towards the outline of what appears to be a secluded building. 

“If it’s safe, can we rest there?” You ask Ronnie who’s caught up with you now. The rest of the group slowly join his side. 

“Please! I’m exhausted!” Lucy pleads, butting into your conversation. 

Ronnie nods in agreement at the request as he starts making his way down the dirt track. You join his side, looking around in apprehension as you hold your baseball bat tight. 

As you reach the building, it appears to be an abandoned cabin, the area surrounding it is quiet and seems free of threats. 

“Cover me?” Ronnie asks, grabbing his flashlight, as he reaches the cabin door. 

“Sure,” you reply as you signal to the group to wait outside.

The door into the cabin opens with ease, leading into an open plan living area and small kitchenette, it’s clear with no signs of danger. You both investigate the rest of the cabin, discovering two bedrooms to the rear and a small bathroom. As you exit the cabin, you let the rest of the group know it's safe to enter, congregating in the living area together.

“We can rest here for the night,” you say addressing the group, “There are only two bedrooms,” you turn to look at Steve and Alice before continuing, “I think you guys should take one of them.” You knew it was important they got the privacy and rest they desperately needed.

“Thank you” Alice replies, as Steve remains quiet beside her. They swiftly leave the group and head in the direction of the bedrooms before choosing one and closing the door behind them.

“Can me and Sarah take the other one? I’m exhausted! Sleeping on the factory floor hasn’t been comfortable,” Lucy pleads, looking at you with puppy dog eyes.

“I’ll happily keep watch if it sweetens the deal?” Sarah offers, hoping to convince you. You knew you had been lucky enough to sleep in the comfort of a bed back at the house, so it made sense to give them the room. The offer of Sarah keeping watch was a bonus, meaning you and Ronnie wouldn’t need to worry about that tonight.

“Oh... okay then, because you asked so nicely!” you tease, smiling back at them both. 

“Yes! Thank you, you're a star!” Lucy says excitedly, giving you a quick squeeze before running off to the second bedroom with Sarah, leaving you and Ronnie alone in the living area.

You watch as Ronnie slumps himself onto the couch with a heavy sigh, removing his glasses as he places them with care onto a side table.

“I’m drained,” he says, sounding defeated, as he shifts his body on the couch trying to get comfortable.

“I know, we all are,” you agree as you look at him, his features seem softer and his eyes brighter without glasses. You hesitate to join him as you wonder how you’d both sleep tonight with only the one couch between you.

“How do we?...” you ask trailing off as you gesture at the couch with your hands. He looks up at you in confusion and then back down at the couch.

“Oh. Umm, I’m not sure. You could always rest your head on my shoulder, or something?” he asks sheepishly, before continuing, “Like you did at the factory that one time if you want to?” His eyes search yours for a response as you blush at the memory. 

“Well that was an accident,” you declare, causing his expression to dull quickly. “But, if I remember correctly, you were kinda comfortable.” you taunt causing his face to brighten. You knew deep down you had to stop getting so close to him, first, the hand holding and now the inevitable sleeping next to each other. It would have to stop if you wanted to protect your feelings, but you were too exhausted to fight it tonight.

“Is that okay then? Could I? It’s not weird is it?” you ask, seeking his reassurance. 

“No, it’s not weird, unless you think it is? Or you could try putting your head on the opposite end and-” you cut Ronnie off, interrupting his sentence. He had been rambling more than usual recently.

“It’s okay,” you say with a smile, as you sit beside him. You lift your legs onto the couch, making yourself comfortable, before placing your head against his shoulder. Your both silent as you feel a familiar tension build but you’re so drained, you don’t have a moment to dwell on it before sleep overcomes you.

\-----

Waking  suddenly you open your eyes, noticing your head now resting on Ronnie’s chest and his arm wrapped around you protectively. You take comfort in the sound of his heart beating, a reassurance that he was alive and safe beside you and not a part of the undead. You find  yourself nuzzling into his embrace instead of pulling away, as you realize you like it,  _ really _ like it. An epiphany comes over you, everything you had been feeling, suddenly making sense; the magnetic pull, the tension, was because you liked Ronnie more than a friend. 

As you stay nestled in his embrace you wonder if he feels the same way. The past couple of weeks had been surreal and horrifying, but he was by your side throughout it all. Making sure you were safe, protected, and cared for. 

You lift your head from his chest, sitting up to look at him sleeping peacefully. His face was calm, as if he were having serene dreams, the types that block out the dangers of the outside world. Glancing at his full lips you decide to wake him with a gentle kiss. If losing Katie had taught you anything it was that; life is too short. You were prepared to take the risk.

Taking a deep breath, you hope it would fuel you with courage as you place your knees on either side of his thighs, straddling him. He shifts slightly from your movements but doesn’t stir from his sleep. You pause, calming your nerves before leaning forward and placing a gentle, tender kiss upon his full lips causing his eyes to flicker open. They widen in realization, pulling back slightly as if in shock. His hand rises to your face, cupping a cheek in his palm as he runs his thumb over it, taking you in. He flashes you a small smile before leaning into you, placing his delicate kiss on your lips as his other hand grasps at the small of your back, pulling you into him. The small gesture intensifies the moment, as your tongue enters his mouth, desperate to taste him. 

Your heart rate increases as the passion between you both take hold. You couldn’t believe this was happening, you had wanted him from the moment you set your eyes on him and try as you might to deny it, you couldn’t fight it. He was everything you had ever wanted, even when you had fought, you had wanted him.

You pull back from the kiss breathless as your fingers begin unbuttoning his uniform shirt in haste, the black tee underneath had been teasing you for weeks. He watches your every move as you open his shirt, running a hand down his firm chest before placing another hot lustful kiss upon his lips. His hand reaches into your hair holding you against his lips as he lifts you, placing your back down onto the couch before settling himself on top of you, removing his shirt with speed, dropping it to the floor.

“I want you” you whisper breathlessly in between heated kisses. He mumbles incoherently as he departs your lips, dragging his warm mouth down your neck, causing your heart rate to increase. You run your hand through his hair, pulling at it slightly, motioning him to keep going, you need this, you needed him. 

The sound of your heavy panting fills the room as you close your eyes, concentrating on the feeling of Ronnie moving further down your body. You feel a nudge on your shoulder but brush it off, not wanting anything to distract you from what's happening. At first, the nudging is gentle, but the longer you ignore it, the stronger it gets. 

Your eyes flicker open slowly as they adjust to the brightness of the room. You instantly feel the weight of Ronnie above you disappear, as you lift your head from his shoulder, dazed and confused. You glance at him, noticing his breathing is slow and rested, not raised like it was only moments ago.

“Morning” Lucy whispers, smiling at you. You stare at her with a blank expression as you begin to wake up, realizing your encounter with Ronnie had been a dream. You feel his movements beside you, interrupting your thoughts as he repositions himself, sitting up straight.

“Did you sleep okay?” he asks, sounding bright. You avoid eye contact, trying not to engage with him, as embarrassment floods through you. 

“Mmmhmm, you?” you respond, trying to act normal as images from your dream flash through your mind. Staring into the distance you try to make sense of it, what did it mean?

“Yup, best night sleep I’ve had in weeks!” He admits, enthusiastically.

“Well, maybe for you Ronnie!” Lucy giggles before continuing, “Looks like y/n didn’t find you comfortable at all! She’s barely with it!” 

You don’t register Lucy’s comment, her words a blur as you remain in a daydream like state, transfixed on the feeling of Ronnie’s lips of yours, his hands reaching into your hair, him pulling you in close. Then suddenly, a very real feeling of a hand touching your arm startles you, causing you to flinch in response. 

“Are you okay?” Ronnie asks with concern as his hand nudges at your arm. You jump up from the couch immediately, his touch sending electricity through your body as it responds to his touch instantly. 

“I-I... bathroom,” you gush, rushing off from the living area. Closing the door, you approach the mirror, staring back at yourself as thoughts race through your head. ‘ _ You CAN’T fall for someone in the middle of a damn apocalypse!’  _ You repeat to yourself. ‘ _ It’ll end in heartbreak, just like your last relationship did.’  _

You sigh heavily at the thought, memories of it all still painful. It made you wonder if you were just amplifying your platonic feelings for Ronnie because he was a nice guy, the very thing your ex-partner wasn’t. That had to be it, right? That made sense, but you couldn’t deny that you DID find Ronnie attractive.

You shook your head trying to clear your thoughts, It didn’t matter anyway. You were friends, Ronnie had said so himself, even if his actions sometimes made you think he felt differently, it wasn’t important. Your focus was staying alive and making it to the hotel from the radio broadcast. Maybe once you arrived safely, you might allow yourself to consider the dream further but for now, you’d just have to forget it happened. 

Taking a deep breath as you leave the bathroom, you hear Ronnie and Lucy talking, a discussion that promptly ends as you enter the room causing a small pang of worry to flood through you. Were they talking about you? Ronnie’s eyes meet yours instantly as you enter. He looks concerned, impatient almost like he’s desperate to know what’s wrong. 

“Sorry, I woke up feeling sick,” you apologize with a closed-lip smile. Using it as an excuse for your earlier behavior, you hope it's believable as you watch Ronnie’s face soften at your words.

“Oh, okay,” he responds with a sigh of relief as if he were glad to hear he wasn’t at fault.

“Oh no, honey! Are you sure you’re okay?” Lucy says with empathy as she places the back of her hand against your forehead, pausing slightly as she gauges your temperature. “Hmm, you’re a little clammy, we need to get you something to drink,” she says, attracting Ronnie’s attention. 

“We’ll find some water and other supplies when we hit the road,” Ronnie suggests as he stands up approaching you. 

“I’ll wake the others and then we can get going,” Lucy says as she exits the room. You stand awkwardly as Ronnie approaches you, your breath hitching as you begin to feel nervous in his presence.

“Are you sure, you're okay?” he questions, as you feel his eyes trace over your body. You wonder if he’s attempting to read your body language. Not that he needed to, you were a terrible liar anyway. Looking up at him, you pause slightly as your eyes meet, the tension now more noticeable, more pulling, and you realize you can finally name this feeling, it was sexual tension.

“I’m okay! Really! You worry too much, Ronnie!” you insist, smiling up at him, hoping it would be enough to reassure him that you were okay. You’re interrupted by the rest of the group joining you in the living room.

You leave Ronnies side wanting to check on Alice and Steve, noticing as Ronnie hangs back. You assume he’s keeping his distance after the fight with Steve last night.

“How are you doing?” You ask the couple, unsure of what else to say. Steve remains quiet as he glances over at Ronnie.

“We’re doing as well as we can” Alice replies, with a fake smile as she nudges Steve, regaining his attention from Ronnie. “Anyway, we’ve made a decision, haven’t we Steve?” Alice says, looking towards her husband. 

“Right, yeah. If you plan to head to that hotel, then we’re going,” Steve says with absolution, his face emotionless. His change of mind surprises you, it would make the trip more intense given the relationship between Ronnie and Steve.

“But!” he states with force, “I’m not taking orders from him!” Steve spits out, thrusting his pointed hand towards Ronnie as he marches up to him.

“Fucking pig!” Steve shouts, lashing out in rage, “If them biters don’t get you first, I’ll kill you myself!” Ronnie stands stoic at Steves words.

“STEVE, STOP!” Alice snaps, grabbing Steve’s arm and pulling him back beside her. You look over at Ronnie with concern, he looks uncomfortable before he steps forward and addresses the group.

“Look, that’s fine. You don’t need to take orders from me, none of you do and I’m sorry about Katie. I am, but there's no need for death threats,” Ronnie declares as he stands beside you, his chest puffing out slightly. You were unsure if Ronnie was being stupid coming this close to Steve, after his outburst or just trying to assert his dominance, with his build, under the right circumstances Ronnie could come across as intimidating. 

“Should we get going then?” you ask, wanting to change the subject and get out of this small cabin, the enclosed space not doing anyone any favors. 

“Yeah, let’s go, we’ve got a long day ahead of us” Ronnie replies quickly, before exiting the cabin in haste with you following close behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on Twitter for Officer Ronnie Peterson simping, occasional thirst tweets, Adam Driver stanning, and other ramblings [@temo_gemo](https://twitter.com/temo_gemo)


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
> Hi everyone!  
> We're about to get started on our most dramatic, heartbreaking, fluffy, action-packed chapters!  
> I reckon this fic *might* be completed by chapter 15?!  
> Hopefully, you'll stay with me till the end and see how everything plays out. 
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think!  
> 

It had done nothing but rain since you left the cabin, leaving you wet and miserable. You missed the simple things in life that you had taken for granted before all of this; clean clothes, dry footwear, an umbrella, transport. That was the only issue with experiencing a zombie apocalypse in a small town, once you got out, it felt like you were traveling on the road to nowhere and without a car, you were vulnerable to the elements, but you knew you had no choice but to keep going. You just hoped each mile passed was a mile closer to shelter, food, water, transport, or all of those things at once if you were lucky.

You decided to walk with Lucy in the hopes it would create some distance between you and Ronnie after the dream, but you couldn’t help from glancing over at him. You found yourself counting the number of times he had to pause to wipe the rain from his glasses, amused as you watched him fumble at his clothing, pulling his black undershirt from under his uniform to wipe them clean. He had done it six times so far but it wasn’t enough to distract you from the niggling twinge of jealousy you felt as he walked with Sarah, especially when you would overhear them laughing. 

Your gaze quickly shot to the ground as Ronnie unexpectedly turned, pausing to address the group.

“Respite?” he asks, much to your relief, once again you were exhausted. You couldn’t remember the last time you had walked such a distance. You were quick to sit down on the side of the road, the wet tarmac wasn’t an issue seeing as your clothes were already drenched. Lucy gave you a brief smile before leaving your side to sit with her sister.

“What’s wrong with you today?” Ronnie asks before sitting down beside you. 

“I’m just fed up with all of this,” you reply, gesturing to the vast nothingness around you. It wasn’t untrue, the realities of life and the new normal were beginning to sink in. Your dream was still playing on your mind too, and each time you thought of it you found yourself more annoyed by the realization that even if you wanted to act on those feelings, even if Ronnie felt the same, it didn’t matter. There would never be a happily ever after in this world.

“I get it, I’m fed up too... Fed up with death threats especially,” Ronnie sighs glancing towards Steve.

“I wouldn’t worry about Steve, he’s just grieving,” you say, trying to reassure him.

“Hmm, I get the feeling he means it though,” Ronnie mumbles.

“You know he’s all talk but anyway, you and Sarah seem to be getting on. Must be nice walking with someone a bit more upbeat,” you taunt with a smirk, trying to hide your jealousy from slipping through. 

“It’s not like that,” Ronnie tuts before continuing, “You know I’d prefer to walk with you, but you wanted to walk with Lucy,” 

“Hmm,” you reply, causing an awkward silence to fall between you both as you sit in the pouring rain, glancing into the distance. 

A  deafening crack of thunder rips through the sky,  startling you as you feel your body jump from the sound. You squeeze your eyes shut, terrified of catching a glimpse of the bolt of lightning you knew would come next. Thunderstorms were your biggest fear, they had been since you were a child. You knew it was a silly fear but you couldn’t help it, you’d rather battle zombies than have to endure this, especially sitting out in the open. 

Pulling your knees up to your chest, you bury your face into them, hoping to escape the blinding flash of light, but you know you couldn’t escape the sound. Your body began to tremble from the fear.

“You’re scared of thunderstorms?” you hear Ronnie ask, as you nod your head quickly in response, too afraid to talk.

“You’re shaking,” he states as you feel his hand on your back, too afraid to react to his touch as you stay frozen. You quietly sing to yourself in an attempt to drown out the sound of thunder as tears prick at the corners of your eyes. 

The storm produces another earth-shattering crack of thunder causing you to jump again, but this time into Ronnie’s arms, burying your head into his chest as you do. You feel his arms wrap around you, holding you close against his chest.

“It’ll be okay,” he soothes, “It’ll be gone soon, I can see the clouds moving away,” 

“Okay,” you mumble, clutching to him as you focus on the comforting sound of his heartbeat, the sound of thunder becoming less and less.

“What are you afraid of Ronnie?” you ask, trying to distract yourself.

He pauses before answering, “Losing you,”

His answer makes you sit up and stare into his eyes briefly before searching his face for answers. “Me?” you ask as you watch the raindrops drip from his nose. You just needed him to say it, to say how he felt and you knew you would be too weak to fight it, especially now that you knew how you felt.

“Yes. I think I-... I mean, you are, my best friend” he gushes, almost embarrassed. You bite the inside of your cheek, trying to keep your emotions under control. 

“Oh, of course,” you respond, disappointed as you pull away from him, noticing the storm and rain has passed. “We should get going,” you state, standing up. “I’m gonna walk with Lucy again,” you insist, leaving Ronnie’s side quickly.

The group was quick to get going as you resumed walking with Lucy. You knew you were near breaking point; the ‘best friend’ revelation was just enough to push you to your limit as silent tears began falling from your eyes.

“Gosh, what’s wrong?” Lucy asks, “You’ve been off all day,” she remarks noticing the shift in your demeanor as she links her arm with yours. 

“It’s Ronnie,” you sob. 

“What’s he done? Do I need to join forces with Steve?!” she threatens.

“No, no, not like that,” you mumble, unable to hold it in any longer. 

“I like him, like, really really like him and it’s stupid because it’s a fucking apocalypse and I’m so confused and fed up and-” you sob, trying in vain to wipe your tears.

“Oh, honey” Lucy replies 

“I don’t want to like him, it won’t end well. I’ll get killed or he will. Nothing good can come of it,” you declare, almost as if you're trying to convince yourself.

“You can’t think like that. Emotions, connections...love. Those are the things that make us human. Keeps us separate from the undead,” Lucy reassures. 

“But what’s the point?” you sigh.

“There's a saying ‘It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’ and I think that's an important thing to remember, especially now,” 

“Well even if I wanted to, he only views me as a friend anyway,” you relent as your sobbing subsides.

“Really? What makes you think that? Isn’t it obvious?” Lucy asks with a small laugh. 

Before you have a chance to respond to her question, your attention is caught by Ronnie.

“We’ve found something!” he exclaims, making you and Lucy rush to see what he was looking at. Through the trees, a small distance away was a large building surrounded by playing fields and vehicles. 

“Is that a high school?” Steve asks, echoing your thoughts.

“We think so,” Sarah responds. 

“Is it safe?” you question.

“We need to get closer to know for sure, but it should have everything we need. Food, water, medicine, transport, and maybe some dry clothes,” Ronnie says, smiling at you. 

You approach the school quietly, bypassing several abandoned vehicles in the parking lot as you make your way towards the entrance. You notice the decapitated bodies of several zombies scattered around, letting you know that you weren’t the first ones to approach the high school. 

The main doors open with ease, revealing an eerily empty foyer as you stand nervously waiting for instructions.

“Should we split up?” you whisper, looking towards the group. 

Steve shakes his head, “Nah, we could easily lose each other in here,” he replies as you look towards Ronnie for confirmation.

“He’s right. It's safer if we stay together,” Ronnie responds, agreeing with Steve, which surprises you. “Let’s head this way.” Ronnie continues, motioning towards a dimly lit corridor.

You proceed slowly down the locker-lined hallway, before coming across the canteen. Excitedly, you quickly rush to the kitchen, discovering it to be free from threat, strangely just like the rest of the school. Your eyes light up when you open the pantry to discover a mass amount of dry goods, you turn to look at the group, smiling at each other before uncontrollably tearing into the food. It felt vulture-like, but you hadn’t eaten in almost three days, you were starving. Sighs of relief fill the room as you all begin consuming whatever you could get your hands on, each bite was like heaven. You laugh with a mouth full as you watch Ronnie’s eyes roll into the back of his head as he devours a chocolate pudding cup. 

“Can we just stay here forever?” Lucy murmurs between bites.

“Screw that hotel, we have everything we need right here!” Steve exclaims with a smile, you had never seen him look so happy before. You pause from eating to stand back and watch the group in high spirits, admiring the view, almost worried you’d never get to see it again as an echo catches your attention.

“SHHH!” you caution, trying to listen out for the echo. As the group quietens you can hear the faint cries of someone shouting for help.

“Do you hear that?” you ask, catching Ronnie’s attention as he wipes his mouth clean with the back of his hand.

“What?” he questions as he picks up his machete, approaching you as he listens intently. “Is that someone shouting for help?” he asks, confusion in his eyes. You look at each other with a realization that the school might not be as empty as you first thought.

Leaving the kitchen you cautiously follow the cries for help, leading you to a set of doors with a glass panel. The group pauses as you peer through the glass to see a large gymnasium. Inside, there's a small horde of zombies focused on a young man standing on top of a set of retracted bleachers. 

You grip your baseball bat, moving to allow Ronnie and the rest of the group to look through the glass. 

“What do we do?” you whisper.

“Leave him,” Steve replies with coldness.

“We can’t do that, he’s alone!” Lucy replies, “We have to help him,”

“If we do that, we could get ourselves killed,” Steve argues as you look towards Ronnie, waiting for his answer.

Ronnie hums before answering “I could lead them away,” he states before continuing, “I saw a fire exit down one of the corridors, so I could escape through that? You save the guy and we rendezvous outside. Take one of the vehicles and escape, we can’t be more than hours drive from the hotel now,” 

“That could work,” Sarah replies.

“Why you always acting like some hero? You don’t know you guy, what’s it matter if he lives or dies?” Steve questions.

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Ronnie states before continuing, “So are we doing this?” he asks.

“Yeah but you’re not doing it alone!” you exclaim as you shoot a glance at Ronnie, “I’m doing it with you,”

“It’s safer if you stay with the others and rescue the guy,” Ronnie insists.

“No!” you declare, standing your ground.

Ronnie sighs and relents, “Fine,” 

Ronnie finalizes the plan with the group, before separating from them. You both take a deep breath and nod at each other as you enter the gymnasium, catching the attention of the horde. They turn to face you before approaching, the temptation of fresh meat making them quick to follow you out of the gym. 

You rush through the corridors with Ronnie as the zombies follow close behind. Turning the corner, relief floods through you as you see the fire exit up ahead, you pick up your pace as you both race towards it. Ronnie is quick to push down firmly on the release bar, but it doesn’t budge. In your panic, you grab the release bar too, pulling it down with him, hoping that maybe with the strength of you both that the door would open, but it stays firmly shut. You can hear the horde getting louder but it hasn’t managed to turn the corner towards you both yet. Ronnie attempts to throw his body at the door, trying to forcefully open it, but again it stays firmly shut. You look around the corridor in panic, trying to find another exit from the dead-end you find yourself in but you're trapped in. You know there’s no way back as the horde gets closer, your only option now is to hide.

You open the first side door you come across, pulling Ronnie in with you quickly before slamming it shut. Once inside you realize you’re stuck in a small, dark, cramped supply cupboard with no way out. You hold your breath as you hear the grunts and moans of the horde passing by the door. You were terrified and certain this was the end, you could tell Ronnie thought the same as a small amount of light shone through the edge of the doorframe highlighting the worry on his face. 

You grasp at his hand and squeeze it tight, in an attempt to reassure him. It gave you some comfort to know that you’d go down together and if this was your last chance, you were determined to kiss him. 

You edge yourself closer to him, your curvaceous body now pushing against his chest. The close contact causes him to look down at you, pausing, as he studies your face. You know he’s trying to figure out what you’re up to, but you stand firm, making eye contact with him before looking towards his lips. The sexual tension in the air mixes with the adrenaline and fear of near-death which only intensifies the situation between you. This was it, it was now or never. You block out the noise coming from outside of the door as you lean your face into his, noticing he does the same, your lips touch briefly before you jump back from each other in fear as the door flies open. 

“Ronnie! I said get a room not a closet! NOW LET’S GO!” Sarah shouts, signaling for you both to escape. You rush out of the cupboard and leave the school through the now opened fire exit as you run towards the parking lot. Bypassing zombies, you wonder what’s going on as you jump into a vehicle being driven by Lucy.

“Thank God!” Lucy exclaims as she drives off, following a car in front as you and Ronnie catch your breath. 

“What happened?!” you shriek, still full of adrenaline. 

“The fire exit was blocked from the outside, we thought you guys were goners!” Sarah exclaims.

“W-we thought so too,” you stammer, making eye contact with Ronnie, as a brief flutter hits your stomach. He was going to kiss you.

“Anyway, the new guy, Dan, that’s his name, was insistent to help. He led the horde back towards the gymnasium and locked them in there so we could rescue you,” Sarah continues.

“How did you know we were in the cupboard?” Ronnie asks.

“Well there was no blood and no dead bodies, so we knew you couldn’t have gone far,” Sarah replies with a laugh.

“Where are we going?” you ask, changing the subject.

“We’re following Dan back to his base, the Rosarito Hotel or something?” Lucy answers.

“The  Rosarito Hotel?! That’s the one from the radio broadcast!” Ronnie shouts out, excitedly. 

“A community for survivors!” you gush, a sense of relief and happiness overcomes you as Ronnie turns to look at you.

“Once we’re settled, we need to talk,” he whispers with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find me on Twitter for Officer Ronnie Peterson simping, occasional thirst tweets, Adam Driver stanning, and other ramblings [@temo_gemo](https://twitter.com/temo_gemo)


	9. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're mentally prepared for this chapter.  
> Angst, a lot of angst.

You look out of the car’s window in amazement as it approaches a tall multi-story building in the distance. Excitedly, you wonder if it’s the Rosarito hotel as your eyes briefly glance over at Ronnie. His big brown eyes stare up at the building with curiosity, he seems just as awe-struck and fixated on it as you.

The car is silent as it pulls to a stop outside a makeshift gate. You all watch with curiosity as two heavily armed civilians approach the car in front, conversing briefly before approaching your vehicle. 

“Do you have weapons?” one of the robust men asks sternly. 

“Y-yes,” Sarah replies with apprehension as you shift uncomfortably in the backseat, listening intently to the exchange.

“We’re gonna need them before letting you in,” the man states matter of factly.

You all turn to look at Ronnie for guidance, his mouth twisting as he glances down at his machete, clutching at it tightly.

He sighs before asking, “Do we get them back?”

“Only when leaving the perimeter. It’s a safety precaution.”

Ronnie pauses before looking at you, “Well, they did say it was a sanctuary,” he replies, referring back to the original broadcast as he shrugs his shoulders and hands over his machete and handgun through the passenger window. 

The rest of you follow Ronnies lead and hand over your weapons. You reluctantly pass the men your cherished baseball bat before they leave the vehicle and open the gate, waving you through. 

You nervously glance around your new confines as you get out of the car and reunite with the small group of people that have slowly become your friends. 

“Wow,” mouths Lucy as the rest of you stand awkwardly in the forecourt, comprehending your new surroundings. 

As you look around you notice that the hotel appears to be well protected, with tall makeshift fencing surrounding the boundaries and guards positioned at different points of the perimeter. The building itself must be at least twenty stories high as you look up at it, mesmerized.

When you look back down, you glance over at your friends and notice how relaxed and happy they all look, it’s as if a collective wave of relief has washed over them and you could feel it too. Finally, after weeks, possibly months of fighting to survive and constantly living in fear, you had made it safely to this haven.

You glimpse over at Ronnie, watching his captivated eyes dart around the place. He looks overly excited as he takes in the magnitude of everything around him before pausing and returning your gaze. You blush slightly when his mouth curves into a smile and his eyes beam at you with a longing you hadn’t noticed before.

For the first time since the outbreak you feel as though you could have a future, and as Ronnie reaches his hand out to you, your stomach flutters at the thought of one with him. 

“Hey, thanks for saving me,” an unfamiliar voice calls out towards you and Ronnie, diverting your attention from each other. You see the young man from the school gymnasium approaching you with piercing blue eyes and notice he has the build of an adult but moves as though he was still taking his body for a test drive like he was unsure of himself.

“It’s Dan, isn’t it?” you question as he gives you a small nod in reply. “Well, thanks for saving us too, we thought we were goners,” 

“Least I could do,” Dan replies with a chuckle before continuing, “So your friends said you heard about this place on the radio?” 

Ronnie’s face lights up, “Yeah. Is it true there’s no government or military? What about a vaccine? Is anyone working on that?” he asks quickly, hungry for information.

Dan stifles a laugh, “From what we’ve heard, it’s just pockets of survivors left so we make our laws now,” he replies.

“Oh, right. What type of laws?” Ronnie asks as you feel his body shift anxiously.

Dan smirks at you both, “Don’t worry about it Officer, you’ll all find out soon enough. Plus you might even find yourself with a new job.”

“What do you mean?” you ask in confusion as you squeeze Ronnie’s hand reassuringly. 

“We all have jobs here,” Dan shrugs, “Anyway my pals are gonna get you set up with accommodations, so I’ll see you around.” 

You and Ronnie both look at each other in confusion before an over-friendly aging lady approaches the group with a purpose. She was petite with smokey grey hair and gleamingly bright eyes. 

“Welcome to the Rosarito Hotel! ” she exclaims, “I’m Iris and I’ll be showing you around and helping you get settled.” 

A collective greeting leaves the group as you all look at Iris anxiously. Her full of life, upbeat demeanor was unsettlingly considering you were in the midst of an apocalypse. 

Iris pauses as she studies you all, “Gosh. You all look absolutely grim!” she grimaces. 

Lucy laughs nervously, “Well, we feel it too, it’s been tough out there.”

“Oh, you poor things, well, we’ll take good care of you,” Iris smiles reassuringly before continuing, “Now let’s get you settled,”

You all follow Iris as she leads you into the hotel. It’s abuzz with people, more people than you’ve seen in weeks. It’s overwhelming but in a good way. There are men, women, and children and everyone looks healthy; well-fed, clean, and safe. The sight of the children surprises you the most, but you're not sure why. It’s almost as if seeing them reminds you of your past and a harsh realization that they were having to grow up through this apocalypse. 

“Hey, maybe you could teach again,” Ronnie mutters as he notices you glancing at them. 

“Maybe,” you mumble, looking away as you grasp at his hand. You’re too nervous to let it go as Iris leads you through the hotel, there was something strange about the place that you couldn’t put your finger on. 

A group of broad, rugged men catches your attention as they emerge from a room. They look like a wolf pack as they approach, following behind one singular robust, arrogant man with a large tomahawk axe attached to his belt. Your face drops in recognition as terror surges through your body, quickly pulling your hand away from Ronnie without explanation. 

“Babe?” The robust man shouts out, catching everyone’s attention as he dismisses his minions. You quickly make eye contact with Ronnie as his eyes search yours in confusion, you know he’s trying to work out why you pulled away from him. 

“Oh shit! It is you! Babe, I can’t believe it, you’re alive!” the man exclaims, pulling you in for a tight embrace against your will as you notice Ronnie’s face drop at the sudden realization. 

“Wh-what are you doing here?” you ask quietly, your voice small as you stand awkwardly.

“This is my sanctuary, I run the Rosarito Hotel,” he replies with an air of self-righteousness. 

You’re hesitant to reply as you feel everybody's eyes on you, waiting for answers. You want to curse at the man and give him a piece of your mind. He was the very reason you were traveling when the outbreak happened, you were trying to escape him and his manipulative, controlling ways. 

You hold back the tears as you wonder how your ex-partner, Simon, had managed to stay unharmed in the apocalypse and become the man in control of a haven. When it dawns on you that he has the power to force you and your group back out into the dangerous, unpredictable world overrun by the dead. You sigh as you realize that to protect them, to protect Ronnie, you’d have to play along with his games.

Simon grunts at your silence, growing impatient, “Well? Aren’t you going to introduce me to your new friends?” he asks, glancing at them. 

“O-okay,” you stutter, “We have Sarah and Lucy who are twin sisters. Steve and Alice who uh, lost their daughter a few days ag-”

“No thanks to that pig,” Steve mumbles.

“And Ronnie!” you conclude slightly louder in the hopes Steve’s comment went unnoticed.

“Hmm, I don’t think we’ve had a cop grace our sanctuary yet,” Simon divulges as he glances at Ronnie in his uniform, “Maybe once you're settled I can pick your brains on how to instill some discipline around the place, Paterson,”

“Uh, it’s Peterson,” 

“Sure,” Simon snickers before returning his attention to the rest of the group, “Well, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to steal your friend away and get... reacquainted,” he winks.

Your body trembles as Simon swiftly takes your hand and begins leading you away from your friends. You look back towards Ronnie, your face painted with anguish knowing he can’t protect you here. 

“What are you doing?” you question, pulling your hand from Simon’s.

His hand tightens into a fist, “I’m giving you a personal tour, that's a privilege around here babe,” 

“I don’t want one, I want to go back to my friends,” you demand, coming to an abrupt stop and folding your arms across your chest.

He scoffs, “Well, looks like somebody grew a backbone.” You look away from him, your thoughts racing. You desperately wanted to get back to Ronnie and let him know it wasn’t what it looked like. “I promise I’ll let you go back to your friends, just let me show you around,” he pleads.

You let out a conceding sigh knowing the quicker you let him show you around the hotel, the faster you can get back to Ronnie. You follow after Simon as he shows you around multiple areas of the hotel. There's a large canteen, which he assures is well stocked with food as he explains all residents of the Rosarito hotel have a job, which plays a role in keeping the place running. Some people, like Dan, are scouts, who go out and source food, clothes, medical supplies, and other items, like weapons. Some people cook, some people do the laundry, some guard the perimeter, and some mind the children. 

He leads you into a room that's been set up as some type of jumble sale for clothing. You watch as women rummage through the piles and sort them into sections. Mens, womens and childrens, it’s a mix of clothing and footwear.

Simon gestures towards the clothing, “Pick out an outfit,” he urges as you look at him perplexed. 

“Anything?” you ask hesitantly, he gives you an approving nod as you approach the woman and begin searching the clothing for something in your size. 

You quickly opt for khaki cargo pants, a black cami teamed with a light blue blouse, and a pair of black boots. The one thing that you had learned whilst being out in the unforgiving land of the living dead was that a good, sturdy pair of shoes made a big difference. You couldn’t wait to get rid of your destroyed, drenched converse sneakers.

You leave the room with your hands full as Simon leads you up a staircase. He explains that due to the hotel's enormous size, everyone gets their own room, complete with fully functioning showers, thanks to the hotel's backup generators. You can’t help but be impressed as Simon shows you to your room. 

It’s a standard style hotel room with a king-size bed filling most of the space. There’s a separate bathroom which you immediately rush to, turning on the shower instantly, just to see the running water with your own eyes. You can’t help but let out a squeak as you feel the warm water stream down your arm before switching it off. When you return to the main space, you notice the large balcony style windows, giving you a panoramic view towards New York City.

“In the broadcast, it said to avoid the city, why is that?” you ask. 

“It’s a wasteland, swarming with zombies,” Simon replies, “Any scouts we’ve sent out in that direction, never return.”

“Oh,” you reply as you both stare out silently towards the city.

Simon sighs, “Right, I’m gonna leave you to get cleaned up. I’ve got business to attend to.”

“What about my friends?”

“Your friends will be allocated lodgings next to yours, I’ll make sure of it,” he reassures, “Oh and dinner is at five o’clock every evening so don’t be late,” Simon winks before swiftly leaving your room.  
You sit down on the edge of the bed as you comprehend your surroundings, it was astonishing. The place seemed to work effectively and everyone here seemed to be happy, but with Simon in control, you know somethings not right, and now that you’re here, you know he’s never going to let you go.

The thought cruelly reminds you of Ronnie and the conversation he wanted to have with you once you got settled. He has no idea about Simon and how dangerous he is but maybe if Ronnie confesses his feelings for you, you could run away together and find another sanctuary? 

You sigh as your mind goes into overdrive thinking of a hundred and one different scenarios, that you decide to just stop thinking for fifteen minutes and have a shower. Then you’d make your way to the canteen and find Ronnie. 

\----

Your eyes glance around the room as you carry your dinner tray, it’s similar to that of a school cafeteria when you're the new kid trying to find a table to sit at. It’s only when Lucy beckons you over that you see everyone clearly. Their fresh faces and clean clothes had thrown you. 

“Hi,” you offer up sheepishly, sitting down next to Ronnie. You notice how different he looks out of uniform as you take in his new attire. He’s wearing dark grey denim jeans with his utility belt attached to them and a plain black tee. He averts your gaze as he prods at the food on his plate, remaining quiet.

You notice Sarah glance at Ronnie with concern before asking, “So, who was the guy?”

“He-,” you stop as Ronnie stands up from his seat, leaving the table. You watch in confusion as he places his tray on a rack and leaves the canteen. 

“Excuse me.”

You leave the table quickly and chase after Ronnie, “Hey,” you call out, catching his attention. 

“Hi,” he replies, not stopping.

You scurry to keep up with him, “Should we talk?” 

“About what?” Ronnie asks.

“You said you wanted to talk when we were settled?” 

“Oh, yeah about that,” he sighs, stopping, “The cupboard thing, i-it was a misunderstanding.” 

Your face frowns, “What?”

“I was taking advantage of the situation,” he pauses, taking a deep breath, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” 

Your lower lip begins to tremble as a piercing sensation radiates through your chest, “Ronnie...” you murmur as you grasp at his hand. He pauses, pressing his lips together before pulling his hand away.

“We need to stop doing that,” his eyes glossy, “I don’t think your boyfriend would like it.”

“I-I don’t, it’s n-not like that,” you stutter as your voice becomes shaky. 

Ronnie glances up at the ceiling, exhaling deeply as he runs a hand through his hair.

“Are you upset with me?” you question

He lets out a muffled huff, “No? Why would I be?” he asks, unable to look at you, “It’s of no concern to me who you date,” he shrugs as he places his hands in his pockets.

You gasp at his harsh words, feeling as though you can’t breathe anymore as your chest feels restricted. You both stand awkwardly as a silence overcomes you, looking anywhere but at each other. 

“I’m gonna go,” Ronnie states, “It’s been a long day, should probably get some rest,” his voice sounds empty.

You nod your head quickly in response as you keep your gaze on the ground, hiding the tears running down your face from him as you watch his feet shuffle hesitantly before leaving you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, writing this chapter broke me.  
> But if it's any consolation, I updated the tags to include "Angst with a Happy Ending"


End file.
